More than 100 cruise ship visits to city’s docks next year

FROM PAGE 1

He said the business case would have to consider how many potential bigger vessels would come to Cairns versus the cost of the project.

In November a ship carrying the most passengers to visit the port – Resilient Lady – arrives with 4400 guests on board.

Mr Stevenson said the resurgence of the cruise shipping market was remarkable despite the pessimism after COVID-19.

“But the industry is very resilient and very mature,” he said.

“It was a very grown-up approach taken by the operators who have worked well with the port authorities, state health departments and the national Border Force.

“All stakeholders engaged to get cruise shipping back.”

Mr Stevenson said the come- back had been “quite impressive”.

In May-June there would be four significant turnaround or home port visits by Pacific Explorer in Cairns where passengers would disembark and new guests embark, as well as twice in May and June next year.

Mr Stevenson said that would involve 2000 guests leaving the ship and 2000 arriving, totalling 16,000 people.

“That’s 2000 people at a time staying prior to or after the cruise,” he said.

A P&O Cruises Australia spokeswoman said “we are proudly home porting in Cairns in June 2023 and May 2024.

“Our decision to add port calls in Townsville is independent of our operations in Cairns and we look forward to making our 2025 full program for Queensland available shortly,” she said. “Our footprint in Queensland is expansive with more than 118 port calls scheduled this year, injecting $500 million to the state’s economy.

“As part of our long-term commitment to Queensland, we continue to have constructive and positive conversations with both state and local governments around our port calls and deployment strategy,” the P&O spokeswoman said.