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Cruise direct spending hits a high of nearly A$2bn in Australia

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CDU chairman Stephen Bradford delivers the preliminary 2014-15 Economic Impact Report (Photo: Helen Hutcheon)
Cruise ship visits delivered A$1.953bn in direct expenditure to Australia last year, according to Cruise Down Under's 2014-15 Economic Impact Report.

Association chairman Stephen Bradford released details of the report at Cruise Down Under's 2015 annual conference in Darwin.

Bradford said crew spending had also hit record levels and that the economic impact was worth A$3.331bn. 
 
He said 30 ports had been visited across Australia and there had been a record 874 port visits, including 427 turnarounds.
 
A total of 2.421m passengers arrived in Australian ports, spending A$902.7m. Crew expenditure reached A$86.8m.
 
Bradford said the future is rosy, with seven new ships coming to Australia in 2015-16—Noordam, Golden Princess, Explorer of the Seas, Pacific Eden, Pacific Aria, Costa Luminosa and Azamara Quest.
 
The A$1.3bn Ovation of the Seas, currently under construction in Germany, will arrive in Fremantle on December 6, 2016. She will make several trans-Tasman cruises before leaving Sydney on January 23, 2017, on a repositioning voyage to Singapore.
 
The full 50-page Economic Impact Report will be available in the coming weeks.