South Australia’s multi-million-dollar cruise industry has delivered a record-breaking economic impact during the 2023-24 season surpassing the 2022-23 cruise season, which injected $215 million into South Australia’s economy and supported 704 jobs.
The Economic Impact Assessment of Cruise Tourism in Australia 2023-24 jointly commissioned by Cruise Lines International Association and the Australian Cruise Association shows the 2023-2024 cruise season injected a record high $227 million into South Australia’s economy and supported 738 jobs.
The state benefited from steady cruise ship visits across the 2023-24 season, which saw a total of 122 cruise and expedition ship visits to South Australia, including 45 to Adelaide and 25 to Kangaroo Island, 10 to Port Lincoln and 42 to expedition landing sites or anchorages in unique and remote coastal destinations.
More than 208,000 passengers and crew visited the state’s shores from October 2023 until June 2024.
Boosting economic benefits across the state’s tourism regions, a total of 27,228 shore excursions were undertaken across the season in destinations such as Kangaroo Island, Eyre Peninsula and Adelaide Hills.
It comes as South Australia welcomed the successful start of the 2024-25 cruise season earlier this month, when Princess Cruises’ Diamond Princess visited Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln, and Adelaide.
A total of 119 cruise and expedition ship visits are scheduled for the 2024-25 season, bringing an estimated more than 241,000 passengers and crew to South Australian shores.
More than 20 first-time voyages are currently scheduled, including luxury cruise lines bringing in high yield visitors to the state, such as MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Hapag Lloyd Cruises.
As put by Minister for Tourism, Zoe Bettison
South Australia’s cruise industry has once again delivered a significant boost to our visitor economy, generating a record $227 million while crucially supporting more than 700 jobs across the state.
The great benefit of cruise is that it brings visitors from across the world directly to our stunning coastal towns, from Penneshaw to Port Lincoln. It also means South Australia is now top of mind as a desired destination for the more than 208,000 passengers and crew who visited over the season.
While I acknowledge there are some challenges ahead for future cruise seasons as a sector nationally, our objectives remain on growing the number and range of cruise lines and ships adding South Australia to their itineraries and bringing high-yield visitors to our shores.
As put by Jill Abel, Chief Executive Officer Australian Cruise Association
The value of cruise tourism in Australia has surged to a record high, generating $8.43 billion for the national economy during 2023-24 while supporting more than 26,000 jobs around the country.
Cruise ships visited 49 ports and destinations around Australia during 2023-24, bringing increases in visitor spending to every coastal state and territory.
Cruise ships made 1,650 visits to communities around the Australian coast in 2023-34, an increase of 5.1% on the year before. Together these destinations recorded almost 4.3 million passenger visit days over the financial year, an increase of 26.9%.
The Economic Impact is an enormous windfall for businesses like tourism operators, hotels and restaurants, retailers, transport providers and port operators. In addition, passengers often return to destinations they initially discovered on a cruise, which creates added benefits for communities in the longer term.
