By
Rebecca Gibson |
A record six cruise ships carrying a total of 11,000 passengers will call at the port of Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) between 2 and 6 March.
Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Solstice and Cunard Line’s Queen Mary 2 will be the largest ships to berth in the city, carrying around 2,850 and 2,620 passengers respectively.
“This will be a significant boost to the tourism industry with predictions visitors could pump as much as $2.5 million dollars into the local economy over this single week,” said Adam Giles, chief minister of the Northern Territory and minister for tourism.
To commemorate the record week, Tourism NT, Tourism Top End, the City of Darwin, the Darwin and Waterfront Retailers Association and the Darwin Waterfront Corporation have organised various events. Musical performances will take place every lunchtime at the Smith St Mall, while a daily pop-up market will be held at the Darwin Waterfront Precinct and the city’s retailers will offer exclusive deals throughout the week. In addition, guests will be able to visit the city’s attractions and take one of the regular tours to nearby Litchfield National Park.
Cruise Down Under anticipates Australia’s cruise sector will continue its past ten years of double-digit growth, with new markets like Asia opening up to cruise experiences.
“The cruise ship sector contributed more than AUS$54 million to the NT economy last year when 38 cruise ship visited Darwin,” said Giles. “That’s more than triple the figure ten years ago when just 11 cruise ships visited, generating AUS$4.14 million for the economy.”
To support this growth, the NT government has released a new Cruise Sector Activation Plan 2015-2020.
The plan focuses on three key areas including increasing the number of cruise lines visiting and homeporting in Darwin, and ensuring that the city has the infrastructure to handle visits from the world’s largest cruise ships. It also aims to ensure that visiting passengers and crew have the opportunity to explore the region, engage with locals and return to Darwin for extended visits in the future.
“It plots the course for growing the NT cruise sector into the future, taking advantage of changes in cruise demand from Australia and overseas, particularly in Asia,” said Giles. “Our full service port and well-established tourism infrastructure mean Darwin is well positioned as Australia’s Northern Gateway Port to welcome this new cruise traffic.”
The NT government is seeking input from industry on the Cruise Sector Activation Plan.