Cruise Critic recently held its inaugural global event in Sydney to celebrate the company’s first year in Australia and announce two new initiatives for the Australian market.

The local website, www.cruisecritic.com.au, revealed strong growth in its first 12 months, with unique visitors (Australian IPs) doubling from around 150,000 to 326,000 per month.

Cruise Critic Australia Editor, Louise Goldsbury said “One million Australians took a cruise last year, so this means we’re seeing the equivalent of one in three Australian cruisers using Cruise Critic. In the next year, with several new local initiatives, we would like to see that number grow to one in two Australian cruisers, or half a million Australians, using Cruise Critic to research, review and share their cruise holidays.”

In Cruise Critic’s survey of its Australian members, it was found that 95 percent find cruise deals on travel websites such as Cruise Critic, 27 percent consult a travel agent and 29 percent look in newspapers.

“Notably, 23 percent of Australians using cruisecritic.com.au are first-time cruisers and 24 percent are avid cruisers who have cruised more than 11 times,” said Goldsbury. “They’re very passionate about cruising – 54 percent cruise at least once per year, 23 percent more than once, and most spend $2000+ on their cruises (excluding onboard spend). Interestingly, many frequent cruisers have sailed with five different cruise lines. The age group is also younger than the old stereotype, with the majority (61 percent) aged 35-64.”

“We also encourage travel agents to use Cruise Critic as a comprehensive information resource and to recommend it to their curious clients. The site has more than 160,000 cruise reviews by past passengers, rating 600 ships, and 47 million forum posts on our popular community boards.”

Cruise Critic also announced its inaugural prestigious Editor’s Picks Awards will be launched in Australia in October 2016, in line with the company’s long-running US and UK Editors’ Picks Awards.

These awards are chosen by Cruise Critic’s international team of editors, to recognise each region’s best cruise lines and ships in more than 20 categories. More details will be revealed in coming months.

VIP guests at the event included CLIA Australasia’s Brett Jardine and Peter Kollar, Carnival Australia’s vice president corporate affairs, Sandy Olsen, as well as representatives from Royal Caribbean International, Norwegian Cruise Line, P&O Cruises, Holland America, Seabourn, Cruiseabout, Flight Centre, Cruise1st, and Cruise Critic’s general manager Mike Ewing, who travelled from the U.S to host the harbourside cocktail party, held at Wolfies, Circular Quay.

Among the guests also were:

Brett Jardine and Peter Kollar (CLIA)

Sandy Olsen (vice president corporate affairs, Carnival Australia)

Cassandra Bolton, Peta Williams and Anna Bathgate (Royal Caribbean International)

Tony Archbold (Holland America & Seabourn)

Chris Hill (Norwegian Cruise Line)

Peter Little (P&O Cruises)

Monique Van Gelder (Flight Centre/Cruiseabout)

Sue Charlton (Cruise1st)

Tim Faircloth (I Love Cruising)

PR managers from Travel Corporation (Rae White and Michael O’Leary), Brandman PR (Susie Westwood), MG Media (Emma Hartley and Jon Murrie), D’Arcy PR (Harriet Lawler), PEPR Publicity (Philip Engelberts and Anna Mansfield)

Mike Ewing, Cruise Critic’s general manager (US-based)

Cindy Tan, TripAdvisor’s Asia Pacific vice president display advertising (Cruise Critic is part of the TripAdvisor family) – Singapore-based

Julien Coste and Ela Barnett, Cruise Critic senior sales managers

Cruise Critic writers including Sally Macmillan, Caroline Gladstone, Roderick Eime, Jac Taylor