I Love Cruising. So Why Am I Bored With Cruising in Australia?
Don’t come at me, but I have a confession to make:I’m bored.
And disillusioned.
I love cruising. I always will, but increasingly, when I look at what’s on offer to Australian cruisers, I find myself asking:
Is this really the best we can do?
I want Australia to be a cruise destination that makes me – and the world - excited to book my next holiday. I don't always want to fly overseas to cruise. I want to cruise from Australia.
I fear I sound like a broken down record and that no-one really wants to listen. A sharp contrast to a few years when I was one of the loudest voices in Australia during the pandemic, giving hundreds of media interviews, live TV crosses, hosting protests, consulting with key industry figures to ensure I have the correct message and supporting in every possible way and giving up an exorbitant amount of my time to help cruising return.
Now, I don't even get invited to CLIA360.
Even though this blog reaches over a HALF MILLION PEOPLE.
After reading all the coverage from CLIA Global President and CEO Bud Darr speaking events last week, and Australia’s need to improve our competitiveness, I found myself thinking: we've been having this conversation for years.
At what point do we stop talking about the problem and actually start doing something about it?
The ships are looking elsewhere.
The cruise industry is global. Cruise lines have ships to deploy, shareholders to satisfy and billions of dollars of investment to protect.
So naturally, ships will go where the numbers work.
Australia is competing with Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, the Middle East and a growing list of emerging cruise destinations.
If operating here becomes too expensive, too complicated or too uncertain, cruise lines have alternatives.
And that's the part that should worry us.
Because when a ship leaves Australia, it's not simply a cruise line making a commercial decision.
It's passengers who aren't staying in our hotels.
It's tour operators who don't get those bookings.
It's restaurants, taxis, attractions, retailers, suppliers and regional communities missing out.
It's Australian farmers and producers who lose a customer.
The Australian Paddock to Port Alliance has been highlighting exactly this connection — how cruise ships purchase Australian meat, seafood, dairy, fruit, vegetables and wine, creating a supply chain that stretches well beyond the port.
Cruising is much bigger than the ship. So why are we making it harder for ships to come here?
And here's where I get frustrated
Every year we hear the same reasons:
High operating costs
Port fees
Regulatory uncertainty
Infrastructure challenges
Infrastructure challenges
Better commercial opportunities overseas
I understand all of that.
But as a passionate Australian cruiser, I'm starting to feel like we're stuck in an endless, exhausting loop.
We talk
We consult
We hold conferences
We release reports.
We discuss competitiveness
And meanwhile, the ships keep going somewhere else.
At some point, Australian cruisers are entitled to ask: What are we actually doing about it?
Because I don't think the answer is simply telling us to cruise more in Australia.
Give us something worth booking. This is where I think the conversation needs to change. The Australian cruiser has changed.
We're more experienced. We're more adventurous. We've sailed multiple times. We've been to the South Pacific, New Zealand and around the Australian coastline.
We've seen the same ports. We've done the same itineraries.
And we're ready for something different.
How many times can you sell the same itinerary to the same increasingly experienced cruiser?
Give us different ships, different itineraries, different combinations of ports. More overnight stays. More regional destinations.
More opportunities to experience the Australia we don't normally see.
And why shouldn't a cruiser in Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth have genuine homeport options rather than having to fly to Sydney or Brisbane?
If I'm already getting on a plane, suddenly Asia starts looking very attractive.
That's the reality cruise lines are competing with.
Australians aren't bored with cruising. We're bored with limited choice.
That's an important distinction.When I talk to Australian cruisers, I don't hear people saying they have fallen out of love with cruising, but quite the opposite. They want to cruise more. They just don't necessarily want to cruise here when the choices are limited.
And that's a huge missed opportunity because Australia has an enormous advantage; Australians already love cruising.
We don't have to convince an entire population to discover cruise holidays. The market is here, the demand is here, the destinations are here.
So why aren't we giving those cruisers more reasons to stay?
Governments need to understand the bigger picture. Cruise isn't just tourism.
It's agriculture, hospitality, transport, retail, regional tourism, jobs, accommodation, aviation, food and beverage.
It's manufacturing and supply chains.
Every passenger stepping off a ship represents potential spending across the Australian economy.
And every ship that chooses another country represents an opportunity we have lost.
CLIA has put the economic contribution of cruising in Australia at $7.3 billion.
So perhaps it's time we stopped treating cruise ships as an occasional visitor we should be grateful for and started treating cruising as the serious economic industry it actually is.
I don't want to give up on Australian cruising. I'm frustrated because I care.
If I didn't love cruising, I wouldn't care where the ships went.
I wouldn't be writing about it.
I wouldn't be writing about it.
I wouldn't be asking why Australians are increasingly looking overseas.
I wouldn't be sitting here wishing for more ships, more destinations and more interesting itineraries.
I want Australia to win.
I want to see newer ships.
I want to see cruise lines taking chances.
I want to see destinations beyond the usual suspects.
I want to see governments and ports recognising that attracting a ship is an investment in the wider economy, not simply another vessel arriving at a terminal.
And I want the industry to listen to its customers.
Because here's what I think Australian cruisers are saying:
Don't ask us why we're going overseas. Give us a reason not to.
After 60 cruises, I know what great cruising looks like.
Australia can and should do better.
I don't want to spend the next ten years having the same conversation.
