Newest members of the fleet Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden will visit Australian island next year
By
Rebecca Gibson |
P&O Cruises is to make its first call at the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Fraser Island off the southern Queensland coast in Australia next year.
Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden – the two latest additions to P&O Cruises’ fleet – will call at the world’s largest sand island on 3 April and 12 December respectively. Pacific Aria will call as part of a roundtrip from Brisbane, while her sister will visit during a Sydney roundtrip.
“Fraser Island’s indigenous inhabitants gave their island home a name that means paradise and our cruise passengers will have the opportunity to discover this for themselves,” said Ann Sherry CEO of Carnival Australia, which operates P&O Cruises. “Visiting Fraser Island by cruise ship with its 184,000 hectares of diversity from pristine beaches, lake and sand cliffs to rainforests will be a unique experience for our cruise travellers. We are delighted to be working with the Queensland Government, Queensland National Parks, Kingfisher Bay Resort and the Fraser Coast Region to make sustainable cruise tourism part of Fraser Island’s visitor experience.”
Fraser Island is just one of 15 new destinations P&O Cruises has added to its itineraries recently. Others Queensland destinations include Mooloolaba, Hamilton Island and Gladstone.
“We’ll now see more visitors enjoying Fraser Island’s natural beauty, which is great news for local tourism operators,” said Kate Jones, Queensland’s Minister for Tourism. “We hope that the incredible experiences visitors will have on Fraser Island make them want to return to Queensland again.”
Both Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden’s cruises will be operated in conjunction with Kingfisher Bay Resort which offers a range of eco-friendly, four-wheel drive tours along the island’s beaches and 1,500km of tracks. It is hoped that the partnership will help Kingfisher Bay Resort Group to deliver increased tourism opportunities across the Fraser Coast.
“The domestic cruise market has grown significantly in recent years and we welcome this exciting opportunity to attract more visitors to Fraser Island and the region,” said David Hay, general manager of King Fisher Bay Resort Group. “The Fraser Coast has some incredible products and experiences to offer our domestic and international visitors and it is pleasing to see this potential being recognised by major companies like P&O Cruises.”