What's even better than 100 million outbound Chinese tourists ready to cruise? Being in a position to capitalise on their desire.
"You have a boom and not a boom," explains Arnold Donald, the president and global chief executive of Carnival Corporation, the world's biggest cruise line company. 
"It's a boom as Australia will get more tourists coming [from China]. But not a boom in that there are limitations in [Australia's] network [of] ports and berths. That's the yin and the yang of it."
Talking to The Australian Financial Review during a whirlwind three-day trip to Sydney for the meeting in Sydney harbour of five P&O ships, all owned by Carnival, Mr Arnold alluded to the long-running push by cruising industry heavyweights, including Carnival Australia's CEO Ann Sherry, to improve the nation's port facilities so they can handle more guests. But development has remained slow, not least with inner-west Sydney residents' fears that a local respiratory illness is related to the burning fuel from liners docking at White Bay.
Carnival will home port six ships in China next year - including a purpose built ship, Majestic Princess, with a Chinese name on her hull - in order to cater for rapidly increasing demand. Many of those ships will look to sail to Australia for the southern hemisphere cruising season from   September to   April. "Off season in China will be [the] hot season in Australia," Mr Arnold said on   November 24.
"But while Australians love their cruising, the population is not so large it can accommodate a zillion more ships coming in at once. We'd be looking to source passengers other than Australians. By sheer numbers, China is where it's at," Mr Donald said.
While emphasising Australia understands the economic importance of expanded tourism, not least as the mining boom wanes, Mr Arnold said more needed to be done.
"Our message is simple. These are complex issues and you have to take a lot into consideration - the local populace; alternative uses [for port facilities]. We just want to make certain we've highlighted the opportunities and the challenges.

Fastest growth rate
"Port development takes time and there are many issues involved and we respect that."
Australia has long boasted the fastest rate of growth in the global cruising market and now accounts for just over 10 per cent, or around 8.1 million, of Carnival's 80 million passenger cruise days each year, where passenger cruise days refer to the number of people carried onboard multiplied by the number of days they spent at sea.
"Australia has grown about 20 per cent for the past seven to eight years," Mr Arnold said.
"However, China's growth rate will overtake that."
Carnival is growing its capacity in the Chinese market by 58 per cent next year.
"China now accounts for about 2.6 million passenger cruise days but that's predicted to rise by 3.9 million next year," Mr Arnold said.
In   October, Mr Arnold signed a $US4 billion ($5.5 billion) deal in London for Carnival to joint venture with local companies to create China's first domestic cruise brand.