A record total of 98,000 New Zealanders sailed the world’s oceans on a cruise holiday in 2017, with a 8.7% leap in passenger numbers, validating the country’s position as one of the world’s fastest-growing cruise markets, according to Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia’s 2017 New Zealand Source Market Report.
New Zealand continues to outperform many other more established cruise markets, in percentage terms well ahead of the US, Europe, the UK and Ireland, noted CLIA Australasia Managing Director, Joel Katz, on the occasion of the report release in Auckland.
Over the last decade, New Zealand ocean cruise passenger numbers have risen by an average of 14.7% a year, with about two thirds of Kiwi cruise travelers choosing to cruise close to home, boosting cruising popularity in the region.
With 109 new cruise ships set to be delivered between 2018 and 2027, New Zealand is well positioned to reap the rewards of increased local deployments, as long as infrastructure constraints can be addressed and the tax burden on cruisers and the industry does not become too onerous. With many of these local cruises calling at the regional ports around the New Zealand coastline, local communities benefit from the injection of valuable tourist dollars and cruise line expenditure into the local economies.
World perspective
- While New Zealand is still an emerging source market for cruise passengers and has a relatively small population, its performance in 2017 remains impressive on the world stage.
- Across the world 26.7 million people took a cruise 2017, up 6.3% from 2016, positioning New Zealand as one of the smallest cruise markets in terms of passenger numbers, with less than 1% of the world’s cruisers, but certainly punching above its weight in terms of growth and market penetration.
- In percentage terms the nation’s growth rate of 8.7% was higher than the levels recorded by other key source markets:
-The world’s largest cruise market, the US, recorded 4.8% growth,
-China grew by 13.4%
-Australia achieved a passenger growth rate of 4.4%,
-Italy saw just 2.5% increase,
-the UK and Ireland grew of 0.5%, and
-France fell by 9.2%.
Other key findings
- The South Pacific maintained its place as the most popular destination for Kiwi cruisers with the region attracting one in almost three of the nation’s ocean cruise passengers,
- New Zealand cruises continued to be the second most popular with 24% of Kiwis choosing to cruise close to home,
- The number of New Zealanders cruising in Australia experienced the largest growth in 2017 – with 13,264 cruising, up 112% from 2016,
- The equivalent of 2.2% of New Zealand’s population took an ocean cruise last year,
- The most popular cruise duration was 8-14 days, with 44% of cruisers, though shorter voyages of less than 4 days once again saw the biggest jump of 150%,
- Age brackets remained consistent with 2016, with around 40% of New Zealand cruisers under the age of 50, and about 60% aged over 50.
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