Report: Asian cruise passengers are on the rise, and they’re younger too

There now are more cruise ships, more ports and more cruisers in Asia where passenger capacity has jumped about 20% since 2013, a new study says. And Asian cruise passengers tend to be younger too.

That’s the word from last week’s Asia Cruise Trends report from the Cruise Lines International Assn. It says cruise ships carried almost 1.4 million Asian travelers last year, which represents 34% compound annual growth since 2012.

China alone showed a 79% increase in cruise passengers between 2012 and 2014.

Fifty-two cruise ships have 1,065 sailings planned in Asia this year. The ships can accommodate 2.17 million passengers, the study says.

Cruise Market Watch projects 2015 numbers at 1,891,200 passengers, or 8.5% of the global market.

CLIA, as the trade group is known, notes that Asian cruise passengers tend to be younger compared with passengers worldwide. Four out of 10 passengers were younger than 40 years old in cruise markets in China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The average cruise passenger worldwide is 49 years old, married and college educated.

Top Asian port calls across 18 countries planned in 2015 include Japan (646), Malaysia (580), South Korea (377), Singapore and Thailand, 374 each.

The cruise association projects the number of cruise passengers worldwide in 2015 to be 23 million, and the Caribbean remains the most popular destination.