Royal Caribbean Regional Vice President, Asia Pacific, met with Australian officials to discuss the cruise market and attracting more Chinese tourists to Australian cruises was the first question raised.
Smith indicated despite the fact Royal Caribbean already serves over 300,000 Chinese cruise passengers each year, getting the Chinese market to try cruises out of Australia remains a hurdle.
“We haven’t got a proposition in the Chinese market for cruising from Australia. I can’t say it is in our short-term plan,” says Smith.
“(But) We stand better placed than anybody to cater to that market because of our activity in that market already, but we haven’t really created a product.”
Smith says the problem for cruising from Australia for the Chinese market is the lack of port density. “The market wants a port every day and unfortunately with the distance we struggle to do a port every day. And that is one of the limitations at the moment for that market. When they better understand cruising and they can relax then they will probably take some of our longer itineraries.”
