Bad publicity fails to damage demand for cruising

Following the ongoing inquest into the death of P&O Pacific Sky passenger Dianne Brimble in September 2002 which has revealed an apparent culture of drinking, sex and uncontrolled behaviour and excess on P&O vessels operating out of Australia, there appears to be no medium or long term decline in operators and passengers commitment to cruising.

While there has been a recent dip, cruise experts and operators say that industry forecasts remain strong, a report in Brisbane’s Courier Mail says that cruise booking agency Creative Cruising Group has experienced growth of 15% to 20% over the past 13 years and expects similar during the coming years.

Creative Cruising Managing Director Ernie Skalsky said recent publicity had affected sales but he expected a quick turnaround, adding, “I’m hearing from travel agents a lot of people have either deferred their booking or decided to cancel and I think that’s quite understandable, but I think that the cruise industry will come out of it”.

He added, “I personally don’t believe that even the negative publicity will have an impact, with the local cruise industry set to increase its passenger numbers threefold in the next three to five years and southeast Queensland would gain from most of this growth with the developing cruise ship terminals”. 

Economic forecasters AEC Group have foreshadowed double-digit growth for the industry next financial year and last year they projected a 32% increase in cruise ship arrivals to Australian ports, supplying 1600 jobs and fuelling the $228 million industry.

Economist Anthony Cavanough said in the Courier Mail, “The increase had been sustained for cruise ships using Australian ports but the tourist spend had increased more, with Brisbane particularly achieving strong forward estimates”.

Tourism and Transport Forum Australia Managing Director Chris Brown also said passenger growth internationally was one of the fastest growing tourism sectors with an annual value of $17 billion and growth of 8%, adding,  “Cruise shipping is particularly valuable to the tourism industry as the majority of passengers are either double-income, middle-aged couples or retirees with high disposable incomes”. 

“The tourism yield from cruise ships could be increased if more shops, restaurants and attractions were made accessible to disembarking passengers.” 

Report by The Mole

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