CRUISE Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia believes the southern states hold potential for greater cruise growth, if government regulations can be eased.
Speaking at the release of the organisation’s annual industry report last week, CLIA Australasia managing director Joel Katz said achieving the right regulatory settings was a key goal for the organisation as the sector faced capacity constraints in Sydney.
“Some of our members have expressed a great deal of interest to do more domestic cruising particularly around the southern parts of Australia, but because of the cabotage rules and the way the customs regulations work, as foreign ships, they’re prevented from doing extended domestic seasons,” Katz said.
“For them to be able to justify bringing ships down to this part of the world, they would really want to base them here for a full season,” he said.
“And that’s why we haven’t seen a lot of domestic or homeporting around the southern states.”
CLIA was engaged with different levels of government “to try and get them to understand the benefits that increasing domestic cruising would bring”.
