Introduction
The rate at which cruising is growing in Australia is marvellous. In the recent years more Australians are venturing into seas for adventure especially during holidays. The growth rate can be associated with the unique in which people can use destination sampling to tour several tourist attraction sites within a very short time.
The systems of payment are all inclusive. Payments modes have been made a one stop shop. This covers travel tickets, entertainment, meals, and accommodation. It is also relatively easy to move since one can to unpack only once during his or her entire stay period. The cruising industry is experiencing upward mobility in terms of growth across the world.
Statistics show that about twenty million tourists went cruising. In order to cater for the increasing desire by the tourists to cruise, the companies involved in the business are building more ships to accommodate the tourists (Edgell 2013).
The Royal Caribbean International is the largest cruise liner that has a ability of almost two hundred and twenty-five thousand ships. Other big cruise liners include the Allure of the seas that was built in two thousand and ten and the Oasis of the seas which is a make of two thousand and nine.
The increase in the number of cruise ships has led to development of new trends in cruising. There are new smaller, luxurious and speedy ships that have emerged. This has highly scaled the desire for vigorous onshore adventures. Companies have increased the number of large resort ships in addition to increasing the number of shopping malls on board.
The number of tourist destinations visited by the cruise liners has increased to about two thousand by the end of twenty-twelve. The destinations include the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Bahamas, and Alaska among many more. Australian tourist attractions sites are the newest areas that tourists are now visiting. This is because the sites are new, have brand sanctuaries, glamorous and remote (Frochot & Batat 2013).
The booming is now booming in Australia. Over the last decade the number of people going cruising has increased from a staggering zero point six percent to two point one percent by twenty-twelve. Government projections in Australia from the department of Tourism estimate that a total of four point two percent of Australians will be going cruising which will be about one million of the population.
Statistics show that in two thousand and eight, cruising grew by twelve percent in the United Kingdom compared to five percent in the United States while in Australia the industry grew by a massive twenty-six percent. Almost half a million people in Australia took to cruising and this was an impressive twenty-seven percent increase in two thousand and twelve.
For six consecutive years, the cruising industry has experienced a double-digit growth rate in Australia. The increase in the number of large cruise liners points to the fact that cruising is an industry that is experiencing immense growth in Australia.
Big companies such as Royal Caribbean International with two super liners based in Sydney, Carnival Sea Princess which is the biggest cruise corporation and Queen Mary 2 that is owned by Cunard are among the companies that run the show in the industry (Frochot & Batat 2013).
The Radiance for instance was the first cruise liner to be based in Sydney in the twenty-first century. The initiative by cruise corporations to invest in cruising only serves to underlie the strength at the industry is growing. The sector is right for holidays because it accommodates all types of people including the young, families, singles, and even the old.
History of cruising
The company that invented cruising was founded in eighteen thirty-seven. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&0) has celebrated almost one hundred and eighty since it first went on voyage (Hampton, 2013). Almost one hundred years later in nineteen forty-five, one million United Kingdom migrants reached their new homeland in Australia. It is documented that the scheme to bring the passengers in mass was planned by the Australian and British governments in trying to popularize Australia (Ward, 2013).
P&O is currently one of the most preferred cruise liners in New Zealand and Australia with its destinations in Australia, Asia, Pacific Islands, and New Zealand. Other destinations include Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney (Frochot & Batat 2013). Most of the company ships carry an average of two thousand passengers. The company also operates an outlet called the Princess Cruises.
Cruise sites
The main cruising sites in Australia include the South Pacific, where thirty-seven percent of the all-cruising Australians visit. Australia takes a share of nineteen percent of the tourists and New Zealand that receives ten percent of the visitors. With thirty-four percent of the cruise ships visited last year, the industry raked in a whooping one point two million US dollars. The ports alone have ten ships permanently based there from six corporations.
Australia is known all over the world as a home the koalas, kangaroos, and kiwis. The Sydney Opera House is the most famous all time architectural icon in Australia. Melbourne pristine coats line has spot shells and frolicking dolphins (P&O 2008).
The garden city is a beautiful park that is kept in the Christchurch comfortable for strolling while New Zealand’s culture, art, and history is kept in the beautiful Wellington Museum. The Bonorong wildlife park has native animals that include the koala, kiwis, kangaroos, and cockatoos. Tourists have permission to cuddle koalas as they enjoy the breeze.
Sydney
Sydney is one of the largest cities in the world. It is famously referred to as the Pot of call. It is built on the most beautiful harbours in the world. It has a white-sailed design called the Sydney Opera House that is dramatic. The plan and structure makes it one of the most recognized structures in the world.
It has been built on eleven acres of land and space. The famous Harbour Bridge that joins the two sides is famed for its lovely outlook. The beautiful sparkling harbour can be viewed from the reception and concert halls in the iconic house. It has an adequate space for strolling along the shoreline at sunset when it is the most beautiful to view.
The central business district in Sydney ha world-class food joints including restaurants and entertainment centres. There are beautiful shops and museum where tourists can buy items o their choice including the cultural artefacts for remembrance. They include the Rocks Market (Ward, 2013).
The streets of Sydney have local musicians and performers strategically located to entertain visitors. The vendors are magnificent; it becomes the responsibility of the tourist to either talk to one in the sun or under the canopy. The city’s best delicacy comes from the sea just because it is situated next to the sea.
Other varieties are also available. This complements the humid weather as the city is located to the coastline. Sydney has thirty-four water-warriors along its beach line. Other things to enjoy include the golden sand, Bondi, crystal water, Coogree, and Bronte. The cliff offers the best moments for tourists to take an adventurous walk. It should be noted that surfing is the most popular of all activities in Sydney.
Hobart
Hobart is located on the foothills of Mount Wellington in the island of Tasmania and is one of the oldest tourist attraction sites. It was established more that two hundred and fifteen years ago. It is smaller and though old, it still holds the flavour of a town that is good for leisure.
It has the Richmond Bridge which is the oldest bridge in the country of Australia. This is in addition to the classic Victorian and Georgian mansions. The unique shops, galleries, and small cottages were built by convicts that were brought in the country from England. These structures give an image of what it meant to build houses in the ancient times covering more than two hundred years ago.
The largest carnivorous marsupials commonly referred to in this island as the Tasmania devil produces bump-giving shrieks are found here. The animals are cranky. Tourists also get an opportunity to visit Tas and tons at the Bonorong wildlife park that also has other native wild animals. The sites waterfront offers one of the best sporting adventures in the world.
Tourists on holiday can head out on a sea-kayak to explore the town’s coastline. By doing this, they get the best moments to catch sunshine at sunset. It takes three hours to cycle around Mount Wellington. The journey begins at the cliff of the mountain that appears above the cloud line and adventures take the tourist down the road to the harbour of Hobart.
In addition to the exercise that a person enjoys, the view of the coats becomes very clear. Cradle Mountain, Freycinet Peninsula and the Bay of Fires make up some of the islands most favourite national parks. The artists in Hobart specialize in the making of wooden carvings and as such tourists can afford some of their products on their way back home.
Elizabeth Street Mall and Salamanca Place are some of the places that local artisans display their products for sell. The open air markets in these stalls are always held on Saturdays. The island has the tastiest wine called the Tasmanian wine. Other products in the island include Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, and Riesling.
Tasmanian Wine centre represents one of the more than thirty joints where refreshments are available in plenty. The increase in the number of cruise ships has led to development of new trends in cruising. There are new smaller, luxurious and speedy ships that have emerged. This has highly scaled the desire for vigorous onshore adventures. Companies have increased the number of large resort ships in addition to increasing the number of shopping malls on board.
Wellington
Wellington has become the native’s destination of choice for those seeking weekends full of fun. The experiences that tourists get make them chic and vibrant. Wellington in New Zealand with little wonders including restaurants, boutiques, pubs, and theatres (Kozak 2012).
It is also a political city and the second largest. To many visitors, going to Wellington is a walk in the paradise. All these recreation centres are found in one place. The income that Wellington city rakes in comfortably rivals New York. Mark you; it is the fastest growing tourist destination centre in Australia.
The beauty of the city also comes from its place. It is sandwiched between steep hills on one end the ocean on the other. In nineteen ninety-eight, Te Papa Tongarewa National Museum of New Zealand was opened. This marked the arrival of Wellington in to the world of the best cultural centres.
The design is both a cultural and architectural evolution. It cost an enormous three hundred and seventeen million U.S Dollars to put it up. More than ten million visitors have come the iconic masterpiece since its opening with more than thirty percent of them coming from foreign countries.
The site presents New Zealand’s cultural heritage in a bold and spectacular way making to receive accolades from across the world. The visitors are given a chance to engage in virtual bungee jump a trip to the prehistoric sites of New Zealand and participate in sheep-shearing.
Most sporting adventures in Wellington are outdoor and represent the traditional New Zealand styles of engaging in leisure. The city has the Red Rocks Coastal Walk that stretches along the Southern coastline and is eight kilometres long. The walk covers the lava formation red rocks over to the seal-covered shores of Sinclair Head.
The rock climbers also have the opportunity to exercise their leisure activities (Edgell 2013). The Cook Strait and South Island are situated in the rugged hills on the countryside. This area can be reached by boarding a four-wheel drive. The city has restaurants that offer delicacies favourable to any tourist from all over the world. The foods from India, Malaysia, Japan, and China are however, the most dominant.
Though the city seems to offer a lavish life, visitors whose financial power is not very strong have their areas reserved for instance the Cuba Street, Oriental Bay, Thorndon, Eastbourne, and Mount Victoria. Some of these areas are located on the suburbs of Wellington. The concentration of the city allows people to take the shortest time possible to walk from one end to the other. The ideal shopping stalls are located downtown the in the city.
It takes an estimated half an hour to reach the centre from any of the tourist sites. Lambton Quay, which is located on Willis Street, is the most famous shopping mall in the city. Following the architectural design of its stores, it sometimes takes over the name Golden Mile. Apart from offering affordable foods, Cuba Street also offers second-hand goods that are cheap and alternative boutiques.
Analysis of growth
Australia is the fasted growing cruise market in the world because of the increasing number of visitors every year. This has the cruise industry experience a spectacular growth rate. New figures from the International Cruise Council of Australasia show that the number of Australians going cruising is currently more than six hundred thousand (Kozak 2012). The figure represents an impressive increase in the number of visitors by thirty-four percent.
The industry weathered the difficult world economic times to steadily record growth. The industry has experienced a double-digit growth rate for the last six years with an average of twenty-three percent from two thousand and six. When compared to the United States and United Kingdom who have enjoyed a four and five percent increase rate at the same period, the growth is impressive. Factors attributed to these by analysts include the strength of the Australian currency that is available and strong.
The stakeholders in the industry however, hold that they are an emerging market and have not reached the level of North America among others. All the players agree that the rate at which the sector is growing has never been experienced in over two decades. While booming of the industry in North America took place in the seventies, when people began cruising in large numbers, Australia has only felt that same in the last one decade (Hampton 2013).
The top three cruise destinations in Australia are led by NSW, Queensland, and Victoria receiving forty percent of the visitors, twenty-four and sixteen percent respectively. The fastest growing favourable destination is New Zealand that saw an increase in the influx of cruisers by more than eighty percent last year. However, the South pacific still controlled the largest share of the market within Australia as it controlled thirty-seven percent in the same period.
The increase has partly been attributed to the change in recreational activities by the retired people. Traditionally referred to as grey nomads, most of them have changed and take to cruising hence becoming the blue nomads. In comparison to the Unites States that had three point two percent of its population going into cruising, Australia had two point one percent (Edgell, 2013).
Associations of cruising estimate that the number of Australians going cruising will reach one million by the year two thousand and twenty. This will translate to a four point two percent of the total Australian population. At this rate Australia will overtake the United States as the largest international cruising market.
In anticipation of this, Sydney has been cautioned that its terminal infrastructure at Darling Harbour which is almost at its ultimate ability will not be sufficient to cater for projected growth. Failure to take cautionary measures will mean that the port at Garden Island will be shared. This will cause a devastating economic blow to the city of Sydney (Cruise Media Oy Ltd. 2008).
Conclusion
The cruise industry in Australia is experiencing the fastest growth rate in the world today. Several factors analysed in this paper can be attributed to this. The remote areas of the sites has added value to the increase. However, the biggest contributor is the new inters that Australians have developed in cruising (Kozak 2012). The largest percentages of people who engage in cruising in Australia are domestic tourists.
It can be passed the future of cruising in Australia is assured as the projections point to the increase in the number of domestic cruisers is likely to hit one million in the next ten years. This covers travel tickets, entertainment, meals, and accommodation. It is also relatively easy to move since one can to unpack only once during his or her entire stay period. The cruising industry is experiencing upward mobility in terms of growth across the world.
References
Cruise Media Oy Ltd. (2008). New tonnage to increase P&O Cruises Australia’s presence in Fremantle, Brisbane and Auckland. Cruise Business Review, 1(2), 4-16.
Edgell, D. (2013). Tourism and Policy Planning. NSW: Cengage Publishers.
Frochot, I & Batat, W. (2013). Marketing and designing the tourist experience. NSW: Cengage Publishers.
Hampton, M. (2013). Backpacker Tourism and Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kozak, M (2012). Tourism and Marketing: Both sides of the counter. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ward, D. (2013). Berlitz: Complete guide to cruising and Cruise ships 2013. Princeton, NJ: Berlitz Publishing.