Decision-makers at the cruise lines may be continuing to procrastinate on how to take that big next step forward for Australia’s cruise industry
, however despite this, there are still so many exciting developments well past the drawing board for 2017.
While most are, not all of these are necessarily new ships. For travellers setting sail from the United States, Cuba returns as a hot new destination on the menu which is bound to entice intrepid explorers from around the world. Another destination which has been making its mark is Iceland, and this is expected to continue into next year.
In its ‘State of the Industry’ report released today, cruise industry representative body CLIA (which stands for Cruise Lines International Association) detailed 26 brand new ocean and river ships of different sizes will debut in 2017, worth a combined US$53 billion. Worldwide, passenger forecasts for 2017 are expected to surpass 25 million – with more young people than ever tipped to take a cruise, recognising the value of a sea holiday as being better than all-inclusive resorts, escorted tours, holiday homes and camping – land holidays in general.
But for now, in no order of preference, let’s go through the major and Australia’s most popular ocean and river cruise lines one by one to see what each one has to look forward to unwrapping under their Christmas trees and looking forward to for the coming 12 months.
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