By
Rebecca Gibson |
Canada’s port of Baie-Comeau welcomed 10 ships and around 6,000 passengers and crew members during its eight-day international cruise season in 2017.
The season closed on 22 October with a call from Pearl Sea Cruises’ Pearl Mist and also saw inaugural visits from two German vessels – Plantours Cruises’ Hamburg and Phonenix Reisen’s Artania. This year, 33% of visiting cruise ship passengers came from Germany – a significant rise from 2015 when Baie-Comeau welcomed Germans accounted for 13% of the port’s total passengers.
Highlights of the 2017 season included Baie-Comeau’s 80th anniversary, the arrival of eight vessels during the RDV Naval tall ships race, and the introduction of Snorri (the mascot of the Drakkars junior hockey team) as a welcome host for cruise visitors.
Baie-Comeau Cruises has also made several investments to improve the cruise experience this year. As part of the Structural Project Support Policy (PSPS), the company worked with Cégep de Baie-Comeau to create a new cohort of tour guides. It also collaborated with Tourisme Québec and Fonds
Toulnustouc to build a new modular reception area on the cruise wharf.
Popular shore excursion options saw passengers visiting Franquelin’s lumberjack village, St. Amelie’s Church, the Garden of the Glaciers, the Seashell Valley, Le Manoir of Baie-Comeau, the Corrid'art du Pavillon Mance Art, Manic-2 and Pointe-aux-Outardes’ Nature Park.