Summer cruise boom in Aussie waters

A RECORD half a million cruise lovers are set to travel on ships in Australian waters over the upcoming summer season.

Green Thunder Loop

A RECORD half a million cruise lovers are set to travel on ships in Australian waters over the upcoming summer season.

Australia's biggest cruise operator Carnival Australia said 325,000 Australian and international passengers will travel on its ships over the next few months - five per cent more than last year.

Royal Caribbean Cruises is also expecting to more than double its passenger numbers to 200,000 this season.

This compares to more than one million trips to New Zealand taken last year, 900,000 to Indonesia and 800,000 to the USA, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.

Experts attribute the surge in the popularity of cruising to the great value of cruise holidays, more and bigger ships coming to Australia, convenience and accessibility.

Carnival Australia ships will visit more Australian ports than ever before, with 27 towns and cities to welcome ships over coming months and pour more than $235 million into the Australian economy.

Altogether 19 ships from across its fleets, including P&O Cruises' Pacific Jewel and Princess Cruises' Dawn Princess, will make 310 calls to Australian ports over the cruise season, which launches this month and runs until April.

It will include the Australian debut of Carnival Spirit, which will be based here full-time, as well as maiden visits from Holland America's Oosterdam and the luxurious Seabourn Quest.

Cunard's flagship Queen Mary 2 will also undertake her first circumnavigation of New Zealand in a round-trip voyage from Sydney next March.

Royal Caribbean's Voyager of the Seas and Celebrity Cruises' Celebrity Solstice will also visit Australia for the first time.

Carnival Australia CEO Ann Sherry said the company will carry more than three times the number of passengers who cruised with them eight years ago, when it had just seven ships sailing local waters.

A record 14 Carnival Australia ships will be based in Australian to offer round trip cruises, while another five ships will visit as part of their world cruising itineraries.

Australia's cruise industry recorded a 34 per cent rise in the number of Australians taking local and international cruise holidays last year, with passenger numbers rising to more than 620,000, International Cruise Council of Australasia figures show.