Australia had 1 million cruise passengers last year

The number
of passengers cruising in Australia breached the 1 million threshold for the
first time, CLIA said in a new study of the market. 

Cruise
passengers grew 20.4% to 1,003,256 last year, according to CLIA’s 2014 Cruise
Market Source Report for Australia.

As a
percentage of the population, Australia leads all other countries with a cruise
penetration of 4.2%, the report said. Penetration rose from 3.6% in 2013.

The South
Pacific area remained the most popular cruise destination for Australia-sourced
cruises, with 39% of Australia passengers visiting that region.

Although
8-14 days remains the most popular cruise duration in Australia, the report
noted a striking year-over-year increase in short cruises of four days or less, with 59% more
passengers on such cruises in 2014.

Australia
accounted for 4.5% of the 22.1 million global cruise passengers in 2014, and
surpassed Italy to become the fourth-largest cruise market after North America,
Germany and the U.K./Ireland, CLIA said.