Carnival Cruises has announced it will remove two of its four Australian cruise ships from March 2028, despite more than 1.4 million Australians going on a cruise last year.
Carnival, which is the only major cruise company operating full-time in Australia, announced it was pulling the Carnival Adventure and the Carnival Luminosa.
The Carnival Encounter (pictured) and Carnival Splendor will remain in the Australian fleet. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)
Other major cruise operators such as Disney and Royal Caribbean no longer operate full-time in Australia.
Carnival said ship schedules were considered years in advance and it was considering "long-term certainty and globally competitive operating conditions to support itinerary planning and investment".
The decision was an economic one, according to Chris Frame, a maritime historian.
"Australia is an end-of-the-line destination, and it's a huge investment."
Mr Frame said higher levels of regulation, such as tough biosecurity rules, and little cruise infrastructure made it hard for cruises to stay profitable in Australia.
All other major cruise lines, including Disney, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean have pulled their full-time ships from Australia. (Facebook: Pieter Klaas de Boer)
"Berthing fees are higher than other markets, refuelling is higher and provisioning the ship with food is higher, as you just don't have the economies of scale."
He said that for the company, the ships were assets and "they can always be redeployed somewhere else more profitable".
New changes to cruise laws
The moves comes after a decades-old temporary exemption, allowing cruise ships to circumvent Australian labour laws, was extended earlier this month, but with new protections added for workers for the first time.
Earlier this year, an ABC News investigation revealed that workers had accused the company of 12-hour work days for seven days a week, medical neglect, not providing safe drinking water and wages less than $3 an hour. Carnival denied the allegations.
Carnival's country manager Peter Little said in a statement the company had "greater exposure to changes in local market and operating conditions" than other cruise lines. Carnival did not respond to requests for comment.
However, Jake Field of the Maritime Union of Australia claimed this was the third time Carnival had threatened to withdraw from Australia, and that it was a negotiating tactic.
"There are 80 cruise vessels that are scheduled to come to Australia, only four of them don't have collective agreements with their crews, and those are the four Carnival ships," he said.
"We'll still be surrounded by water, and be an international cruise destination. Those 80 other cruise ships will still be coming here."