Australians are keener than ever on cruising – but thanks to bad government, the region is running out of ships

• The Cruise Line International Association’s latest report on cruise numbers reveals that cruise in Australia continues to grow.
• However, the report also reveals that more Australians are cruising overseas, and time spent on ships is declining due to the lack of capacity.
• That’s why we keep urging the government to create a national policy – there are 22,000 job and more than $7 billion of tourism dollars at risk.

CLIA’s latest source market report confirmed some good news: Australian cruise continues to grow, and more Australians are cruising more than ever. The latest numbers show a massive 1.45 million people cruised during 2025, making us the world’s fourth largest source market.

But we didn’t really need to be told that Australians love cruising. What should be causing Canberra to question its policy on cruise tourism is the fact that more Australians than ever before are flying to foreign ports – and taking their tourism dollars with them – because poor regulation and high costs are driving ships away.

In 2025, 241,000 overseas visitors cruised in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. The largest number was from North America (144,000), Europe (42,000), New Zealand (33,000) and Asia (15,000). These bring valuable dollars and support 22,000 jobs in ports around the region. It’s a trade worth $7.3 billion.

Yet here’s Joel Katz, MD of Cruise Lines International Association, at what should have been a celebration to announce the rising numbers of Australian cruisers, instead bemoaning the lack of government action.

“The number of Australians cruising is at record levels and with around 80 new ships coming on line worldwide over the next decade, this passion can only rise,” he said.

“However, Australia is struggling to attract ships to our own waters because of regulatory uncertainties and rising costs, so we are becoming uncompetitive as a destination and losing tourism to other countries.

“Cruising contributes $7.32 billion a year to the national economy and supports more than 22,000 Australian jobs, so it is vital that we bring together federal, state and territory governments under a national action plan so we can create greater regulatory certainty, restore Australia’s competitiveness and attract more cruise tourism.”

While the total number of Australians cruising locally grew 8 per cent to 1.16 million in 2025, the total number of Australians cruising outside the local region grew a massive 17 per cent. This means the number of Aussies looking to cruise overseas is growing twice as fast as those looking to cruise locally, leading to a loss of valuable tourism dollars that are gained when Aussies choose to cruise locally. 

Now, one in five Australians who cruise – 20 per cent – opt to cruise overseas rather than in Australia. 

Another important statistic is that cruises are getting shorter, meaning that while we have a higher volume of cruising, the total volume of cruising days is not increasing. While cruises in 2024 averaged eight days, this dropped to 7.5 for 2025.

If we look back to 2018, the previous record-breaking year for cruise passengers in Australia, the average cruise was 8.8 days.

CLIA themselves recognise that the primary reason Aussie passenger numbers are able to grow is due to cruise lines creating shorter itineraries: “While the number of ships sailing locally has declined due to regulatory uncertainties and rising costs, an increase in shorter itineraries has allowed more people to sail.”

This shows that while passenger numbers can continue to rise, our local tourism industry generated $1 billion less. 

More sailing days means more visits at ports, whereas a shorter average is generally due to the presence of three and four-day cruises, which often don’t visit any ports at all.

This year will perhaps be the year when the Australian cruise industry feels the true effect of this loss in capacity, taking into account the dissolution of P&O Cruises, Princess sailing two ships instead of three, Queen Elizabeth is no longer homeported, and Disney Wonder won’t be back for the end of the year. 

The current situation is one where Australia has the demand to see much stronger cruise growth, but due to limited capacity, the industry is only managing to sustain minimal growth, through cruise lines cutting itineraries, and Aussies looking overseas to cruise. 

So, what now?

If instead, better regulatory conditions can be created to attract more ships to the region and for cruise lines to sail longer seasons, Australia can stop finding ways to contain its cruise growth and start encouraging it instead. 

Having more ships can create space for a higher passenger volume with more overall sailing days, not just shorter itineraries that inflate the overall number of passengers. 

The industry needs more room to grow, in the form of attracting more ships who can take passengers, ideally another cruise terminal in Sydney and better port infrastructure in the regions throughout Australia. 

Australia’s story isn’t one of a failing industry, numbers are largely going up and ships are full. It’s rather a story of untapped potential, where growth could be rapid but instead is slow and uncertain as Australia’s massive cruise demand reaches the limits of Australia’s limited cruise capacity.