CRUISE tourism contributed almost $5 billion to the Australian economy last financial year, but growth has stalled amid stagnant visitor spending and ongoing capacity constraints.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia and the Australian Cruise Association (ACA) last night released their first joint economic assessment (TD breaking news), showing cruise tourism generated $4.8 billion in direct and indirect economic output in 2017-18.
Conducted by AEC Group, the study showed that 1,236 ship visits provided 3.5 million passenger and crew visit days last financial year, resulting in $2.3 billion in direct economic output and $2.5 billion in indirect and induced output.
More than 17,000 full time jobs were supported by the direct spending of cruise passengers, crew and cruise lines, while wages added $1.4 billion to the local economy.
CLIA and ACA have not made direct comparisons to last year’s results, having changed their methodology and integrated the processes they previously conducted separately.
However CLIA’s report from 2016-17 reported an economic contribution of $5.3 billion.
CLIA Managing Director Australasia Joel Katz told TD adjustments to previous figures to allow for changes in the methodology had shown no economic growth, “which is what we were expecting”.
“We had the same number of ships and a similar number of ports,” Katz said.
“Visit days went up slightly but spend came down slightly, so it was not unexpected.”
Katz said the new methodology provided a “rebase” from which future economic comparisons could be made.
ACA Chief Executive Officer Jill Abel said the figures provided “compelling evidence of the value of the cruise industry and how crucial its continued growth is to the economy”.
Source: traveldaily