Carnival Australia’s CEO
talks to Cruise Weekly about
hitting the halfway mark of
her prediction for 1,000,000
passengers by 2020.
WHEN LAST WEEK’S CRUISE INDUSTRY RESULTS
revealed huge increases in local passenger
numbers, Ann Sherry’s first reaction was “wow!”
“It was really fantastic to see that Australia
and New Zealand have emerged as the
world’s fastest growing cruise markets,” the
CEO of Carnival Australia said.
“Six years of double-digit growth have
given the cruise industry a firm foundation
for continued expansion with ever increasing
capacity, which translates as widespread
choice for passengers,” she added.
The International Cruise Council
Australia’s report showed that 466,692
Aussies and 42,886 Kiwis took a cruise
holiday last year — halfway to Carnival’s
target of one million passengers by 2020,
which Sherry says is “just over the horizon”.
When the company set this ambitious
industry goal, passenger numbers were
around 200,000 a year.
“A million passengers a year seemed
unimaginable then, but look at cruising
now,” Sherry said, adding that the goal may
be achieved even earlier.
“With so much happening in the cruise
industry, there is a sense that anything is
possible,” she said.
“Who could have imagined five years ago
that Carnival Cruise Lines would be entering
the Australian market or that Holland
America Line would be opening a local
operation or, for that matter, Cunard Line
would be basing Queen Mary 2 in Australian
waters for an extended period?,” she added.
Sherry was not prepared to predict
precisely when the local industry would
reach the million milestone but did say “I
can say the momentum of growth is
definitely with us”.
