Australia: the world’s most exciting and exotic destination

Legend of the Seas will have the distinction of being the largest passenger capacity vessel to visit exotic destinations. She will pose a challenge to each destination visited to ensure her passengers and crew thoroughly enjoy the experience and recommend the cruise to their friends.

We formed CDU in 1993. It is dedicated to making our region a world class exotic destinations and base for cruise vessels. It commenced marketing the whole region instead of marketing individual destinations as had been done previously. Since then we have seen a steady increase in the number of vessels and companies which cruise our region as part of their round-the-world cruises. In addition several companies including Princess Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Silversea and Orient Lines now place their vessels here for an extended cruising season.

In recent discussions with Princess Cruises it was indicated that the CDU region is the most exciting and exotic destination and they are looking to put larger capacity vessels here for a much longer cruising season each year.

Subsequently it has advised that Regal Princess (70,000 GT and 1,600 passengers) will operate ‘Down Under’ from 2001, replacing Sky Princess (46,000 GT and 1,200 passengers) which itself replaces Fair Princess (25,000 GT and 800 passengers) in November 2000). Sky Princess will be renamed Pacific Sky.

Star Cruises conducted an extensive feasibility study on basing a vessel in Australian ports and operating seven day cruises. A tentative introduction date of 2000 was discussed but Star Cruises is yet to make an announcement on its plans.

Obviously these newer and larger vessels will require a large number of passengers to fill the additional berths. Initially many of these passengers will come from outside Australia, probably loyal customers of the cruise lines, but there will need to be a move to attract more and more locals to cruise in their own region.

Australians and New Zealanders are among the most frequent travellers in the world and many of them cruise. In the past there have not always been the products to attract them to cruise locally and consequently many take their cruise overseas. One only has to look at Star Cruises who claims to have had 85,000 Australians cruise with it out of Singapore.

While P&O and Princess Cruises have a loyal following in Australia and New Zealand, other cruise lines are relative newcomers or first time entrants to the market and will establish themselves. Their task will have been made somewhat easier by the efforts to remove cabotage restrictions – these have introduced true coastal cruising for the first time in decades.

Some of these cruises, particularly in the tropical north, have already proved popular with Australians and are heavily booked. There is no doubt that these will attract more and more locals to cruise locally and some of these cruise customers will undoubtedly try out the new entrants and their newer, larger vessels.

Incidentally, the range of cruises available in the region, but not necessarily marketed heavily to the locals is extensive with, in 1999, some 36 cruise vessels from 30 cruise lines having itineraries which include over 650 port calls in the region.

Obviously CDUs principal aim is to have a cruising presence in the region all year round, to take advantage of the complementary weather conditions in the north and south of the continent. It’s always summer here, you just have to plan your cruise to be in the right place at the right time.

Norwegian Capricorn Line’s introduction of Norwegian Star has capitalised on the differing attractions in the region, with a broader range of cruises than P&O Holidays which concentrates mainly on South Pacific cruises out of Sydney. For her second season Norwegian Star will sail on a range of regional cruises resulting from passenger preferences in her first season.

Aside from the larger vessel there is a definite niche for the smaller expedition/soft adventure type vessels, with itinerary planners continually searching for and still finding the interesting settlement or attraction that others have not visited or cannot due to their vessel size.

Australia’s number one Australian-owned and operated cruise line, which has Australia’s airline Qantas as a shareholder, has now been providing a four-star cruise experience for eight years on the Great Barrier Reef, for up to 160 passengers onboard Reef Endeavour.

Similarly the smaller Coral Princess I and II and Kangaroo Explorer provide reef and wilderness cruising. For part of the year, Coral Princess cruises the not-to-be– forgotten experience of Western Australia’s rugged and scenically splendid Kimberley coast.

It’s only a matter of time before a vessel based in Tasmania, Victoria or South Australia provides a cruising experience that introduces the beauty of these areas in their summer months.

These smaller vessels are joined for part of the year by adventure, expedition and boutique cruise ships from overseas. Some operate a series of voyages and the recent move by Spice Island Cruises to base the Oceanic Odyssey (120 passengers) in Darwin has seen a large increase in visits to the northern Australian city.

At CDU we are always on the lookout for more new destinations between the established ports and only recently Victoria has surveyed and approved a new anchorage.

In Western Australia, once a more significant cruise destination than it is at present, the CDU members are looking for more destinations to cut the days at sea between Broome and Fremantle, and Albany and Adelaide. This is a tall order for large vessels, but only a challenge for expedition size ships. Interestingly, during the 1999 Seatrade Miami, there was more interest shown in Western Australia than at any time since Fremantle hosted nine cruise vessels during the 1987, America’s Cup sailing challenge.

Mike Bartlett is a former Port Director and Mariner who has been promoting cruising for some 20 years. He has met with 25 cruise companies in the past year. The message from them is that Australia’s attractions are such that it would be a major cruising area if it were not for the distance from the major cruising populations of the world and the steaming time between ports.