Cruise passengers poured $275 million into the Western Australian economy in 2014-15, with the number of ships visiting WA up nearly 50 per cent on the previous year.
Cruise industry association Cruise Down Under said there were 101 visits by cruise ships to nine destinations in WA last financial year.
Fremantle was the best-performing port, generating a $254.4 million visitor spend.
The other destinations were Esperance, Albany, Bunbury, Busselton, Augusta, Geraldton, Port Hedland and Broome.
The total number of passenger days increased from 92,549 in 2013-14, to 199,499 in 2014-15.
Those visits generated the equivalent of 1,188 full-time jobs.
Acting Tourism Minister John Day said massive worldwide growth in the cruise industry was paying dividends for the state.
“WA leads the rest of the nation in terms of growth in the cruise sector, with visiting ships generating more than $275 million in 2014-15, a $159 million increase on the previous year,” he said.
Mr Day said cruises would also be critical in the state achieving its ambition of increasing total visitor spending from $8.9 billion a year to $12 billion by 2020.
“Having a strong performing cruise sector will help us achieve that goal, and in fact, we’re already seeing results,” he said.
The cruise numbers follow international visitor statistics released earlier this week, which didn't paint as positive a picture for WA's tourism sector.