Bud Darr, President and CEO, Cruise Lines International Association, was addressing more than 850 delegates attending Cruise360 in Brisbane, the largest gathering of its kind in the region.
“We need to be heard. We need to talk about the environmental protection measures that we’re taking. We need to show that we’re being responsible,” Mr Darr (pictured below) said.
“And tourism in general; the jobs we create, the economic impact we provide, whether it’s as a source market or destinations or a country that builds ships.”
Mr Darr said the cruise industry globally carried 34.6 million passengers in 2024, a number projected to reach 37.7 million in 2025 and 42 million by 2028.
Despite these impressive numbers, the CEO highlighted the industry’s small market share of just 2% of global tourism supply.
“We’re somewhat limited by infrastructure, by cost pressures and regulatory pressures, but I think there continues to be great opportunity here and I’m very optimistic about it.”
Turning to the subject of future expansion, Mr Darr said the industry needed to choose “growth with guard rails”.
“We need to be responsible in the way we think about it and we need to make sure that we’re deploying ships in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the limited amount of destinations, if they have limited infrastructure.
“We need to be sensitive to that, plan our deployments around that and do so consistently together.”
Mr Darr with Peter Little (left), Chairman, CLIA Australasia, and Joel Katz, Managing Director, CLIA Australasia & Asia
The two-day conference is being held under the title Navigate, Innovate, Excel and Mr Darr was quick to support those themes.
“I think we’re doing that but we have got to do more of it and we’ve got to do it well, not just in Australia – we’ve got to do it everywhere.”
Looking at the state of the industry, Mr Darr said roughly a third of cruisers are first timers and under 40.
“That old notion of cruising is something for old people is not being borne out by the numbers. Today, the average age is down to 46.5 and I think that will be a trend that continues to drop.”
Mr Darr also gave a big shout out to travel agents, who added “unique value” in selling cruises.
“A travel agent can really provide true value in making sure we get the right guests matched up with the right cruise line on the right itinerary, so that they have a great experience and they come back.”
