Cruise sector delivers nearly $5 billion

THE total economic contribution of Australia’s cruise industry has been calculated at $4.8 billion for 2017/18 in the first joint study by the country’s two major industry organisations.

The combined economic assessment commissioned by Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia and the Australian Cruise Association (ACA) revealed that 1,236 ship visits were made during the period, accounting for 3.5 million passengers and crew days and raising $2.3 billion in direct economic output.

An additional $2.5 billion was also attributed in indirect expenditure for 2017/18.

However CLIA Australasia MD Joel Katz warned economic contribution was being constrained by berthing issues.

“With the nation’s cruise gateways at crisis point, we need to find solutions to capacity constraints to ensure strong economic growth into the future,” Katz said.

“For Australia to cash in we need to make room for more ships,” he added.

The latest report has involved a change in methodology in a bid to boost accuracy.

However it also meant the numbers could not be directly compared with last year’s, which showed an economic contribution of $5.3b for 2016/17.

“The methodology previously was done from a much more macro perspective,” Katz said.

“The firm we used was collecting the cruise line spend data globally and then trying to allocate it back down to Australia...it’s now a bottom up approach rather than a top down one that was done previously.”

Pictured: CLIA Managing Director Joel Katz, ACA Chief Executive Officer Jill Abel, CLIA Chair Sture Myrmell, and ACA Chairman Grant Gilfillan.