Asia cruise market still booming
The Asia cruise industry continues to cruise ahead as the fastest growing region, posting a 55% increase in passengers in 2016.
The Cruise Lines International Association’s 2017 Asia Cruise Trends report shows 3.1 million Asians took cruises in 2016, with two-thirds from the dominant China market.
It again cemented China as the world’s fastest growing major source of passengers.
During 2017, 66 cruise ships will be deployed in Asia with five of these in the mega ship class of more than 3,500 passenger capacity.
That represents a more than 50% increase since 2013, CLIA says.
Capacity region-wide for this year is more than four million, with high growth again expected.
The report says the penchant among Asian cruisers for short voyages within Asia itself continued.
A second CLIA study also looked at the economic impact of the industry in the busy North Asia region.
It is now worth $3.23 billion in direct expenditure across North Asia and supports almost 24,000 full- and part-time jobs.
Factoring in the direct, indirect and induced contributions, the total economic impact of cruise tourism is worth $7.21 billion, the 2016 North Asia Economic Impact Study said.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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