‘Cruises to nowhere’ are costing Aussie port towns up to $39 million

• “Cruises to nowhere” that don’t visit any ports are increasing in popularity.
• But the increased frequency of these cruises comes at a cost: less cruise ships visit Aussie ports.
• Are we in danger of undermining the economic argument for cruise: that you get to see the country, meet the people and spread the weakth?

Australian cruising is seeing a dramatic rise in the popularity of “cruises to nowhere”. These are short cruises that don’t visit any ports, and often offer more of a party atmosphere when compared to other cruises. Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean especially are known to run a lot of cruises like these.

While cruises to nowhere have had the effect of attracting a new demographic and lowering the age of the average passenger, there is another side that is not such good news to the towns trying to attract the cruise dollar: they reduce the average cruise duration and amount of port visits.

This reduces the economic benefit to Aussie coastal towns both in terms of the spend at ports and jobs.

For example, despite having more cruise passengers than ever, Australia actually saw a 2.7 per cent decrease in total passenger visit days. 

The missed economic opportunity

If we look at the cruises locked in for 2027, by analysing Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Princess’s itineraries, we can see just how many Aussies are set to take a cruise to nowhere next year.

Carnival Adventure will sail 10, Carnival Encounter 15, Carnival Splendor 12 and Carnival Luminosa five, with a total of 42 cruises to nowhere coming from Carnival. Then Voyager of the Seas will sail six, Quantum of the Seas will sail three and Anthem of the Seas will sail seven, adding another 16 from Royal Caribbean.

Then Grand Princess will add another three, and Sapphire Princess another two. 

In total, this makes for 63 cruises to nowhere, which based on the ship’s capacities, will account for around 210,840 passengers through 2027.

This means that about one in every seven people taking a cruise out of Australia won’t visit any ports at all. This is without mentioning that many cruises out of Australia go to New Zealand or the South Pacific, also not visiting any Australian ports.

The effect of these cruises to nowhere, and cruise itineraries becoming shorter in general, can go some way to explaining where some of Australia’s $1 billion in cruise expenditure losses is disappearing to. 

Less visits to Australian ports means less shore spend from passengers in coastal communities and it also means fewer jobs and less money coming through for port workers, tour agencies, local businesses and more who operate in these towns. 

These cruises generally mean that a higher portion of the overall tourist spend of Aussies gets used up on board, rather than on shore. 

CLIA says the average passenger spend in a domestic transit port is $195. Therefore, if we imagine all 210,000 of these passengers were to visit at least one port on their cruise, such as Eden, Newcastle, Hobart, Airlie Beach or wherever else, these visitors would spend up to $39,000,000 in coastal Aussie towns. 

In fact, this number could be higher as cruisers generally spend more on shorter cruises, rather than longer cruises that visit multiple ports. 

There would be other benefits for port towns beyond just the initial $39 million, as mentioned, increased job creation would be a side effect, and more cruise lines paying port fees can offer more opportunities for towns to expand their cruise and tourism infrastructure. 

Furthermore, Cruise Eden for example, has told Cruise Passenger that they often see visitors who once visited on a cruise and then came back to spend a few days in the town, which would be another benefit for Aussie towns looking for more tourism. 

So, what can be done?

• This leaves us with a situation where cruise lines attract a new crowd, and generally, make great profits from these types of shorter sailings. Therefore, there isn’t much motivation for cruise lines to change their plans unprompted and start visiting more Aussie ports. 
• This can lead to everyone losing, with the Australian government being less incentivised to attract cruise ships, as the tourism dollars aren’t landing in Aussie pockets, and cruise lines then have no incentive to visit more ports and will rather look to maximise profits.
• However, if for example, the Australian government could provide more incentives for visiting Aussie ports, such as discounted port fees or taxes in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane for cruises that visit Australian ports, this would allow cruise lines to visit more ports without sacrificing their profitability.