Cruising Down Under
Consider this: Celebrity Cruises earlier this summer said it was canceling its departures out of Baltimore and would instead return to Australia and New Zealand next year, reversing a 2008 decision to leave the Down Under market and put a ship in Baltimore. That kind of mobility enables cruise lines to tap new markets and create new itineraries with relative ease, while the U.S. ports they serve enjoy no such flexibility.
Besides Celebrity, Royal Caribbean International, Holland America and Princess have all committed additional capacity to Australia over the next few years. According to Cruise Down Under, a regional, cooperative cruise marketing organization, that could mean an increase of as much as 20% in the number of cruise ships visiting the area during the winter 2011-12 season (the austral summer).
Princess recently said it was putting an unprecedented four ships in Australia in 2011; citing increased demand from Australians, Princess' sister company, Cunard Line, recently said that the Queen Mary 2 would be based in Australia in 2012 for a circumnavigation of the continent, a first for Cunard; Royal Caribbean will deploy two ships to Australia in 2011, adding the Radiance of the Seas out of Sydney. The Radiance will join the Rhapsody of the Seas, currently sailing its third Australian summer season.
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