The debate over how many ships can use Sydney harbour boiled over this week, with Royal Caribbean announcing Voyager of the Seas – one of Australia’s favourite ships – would not return and Radiance of the Seas’ spending most of her time in Melbourne.
The result will be a loss of as much as $32 million to the Australian economy because 65,000 passengers would not be sailing on our waters.
“We’ve been talking about one day Sydney will be full. The day has come,” said Mr Armstrong.
Cruise Passenger’s Editor-in-chief Peter Lynch went on 2UE to reveal that the cruise industry had now banded together and told the State and Federal governments that they would not take part in a NSW Ports plan to have two ships dock at the Overseas Passenger Terminal each day, claiming it risked passenger safety and could inconvenience thousands.
Steve Odell, Senior Vice President and Managing Director Asia Pacific of Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings and chair of Cruise Lines International Australasia said: “Resolving the lack of berthing space in Sydney Harbour is an absolute priority to help grow and future proof cruise tourism in Australia.
“Double stacking has been mooted as an option, however the operational challenges associated with the technique, as well as the likely impacts on the guest experience in relation to embark and debark delays make it an unviable long term solution moving forward.”
Some of Cruise Passenger’s Facebook readers have suggested ships homeport out of places like Adelaide or Perth, while others say that the NSW State Government should be doing more to rectify a major tourism problem.
Emrys Evony said, “It’s my opinion that the State Government needs to get this problem sorted or Sydney will lose another big money earner (traveller’s dollars from cruising companies) to Brisbane and Melbourne. Come on guys wake up we have a beautiful city and harbour why not ask the cruise companies they may assist with some funding they have done it in other countries don’t let this growing industry bypass our great city.”
Other readers like Kellie Wilson said, “We never have cruises that leave from Darwin, and the ships would do well especially with the Asian market during the dry season when the ships go back to the us or Canada. And if you live in Darwin and want to do cruising (like us) you have to fly to Sydney or to another big city to get onto the ship and if the ship happens to come to Darwin and you want to get on it there you still have to pay full price.”
Cruise Passenger asked the NSW Ports Minister for comment but has yet to receive a response.
Margy Osmond, the chief executive from the Tourism & Transport Forum said that government needs to address the lack of cruise infrastructure in Sydney as ships are bypassing to other ports.
“Demand for ocean cruising is surging internationally and Australia is currently positioned as one of the world’s fastest growing cruise markets, with passenger numbers increasing by 20 per cent on average each year for the past 12 years.
“However, our largest cruise gateway, Sydney, is at peak capacity and with the world’s top cruise companies now diverting their premier liners, the time for action to recover lost cruise business, prevent further withdrawals and ensure that growth can occur, is now.
“If Sydney is not available as a destination for large cruise liners, the whole country will miss out. We are now on the verge of a cruise crisis.”
TTF have been lobbying the State and Federal Government to develop a fair sharing arrangement with the Royal Australian Navy to allow cruise ships to access infrastructure at Garden Island.
Saturday’s Daily Telegraph reports quotes NSW Ports Minister Melinda Pavey as saying the solution to Sydney’s cruise crisis is sorting out how much access to the naval base at Garden Island the industry has.
“It is clear that all industry and government need clarity on what can be done to deliver additional berth capacity in Sydney,” a spokesman for her said.
“That will involve discussions with the federal government to use Garden Island and share facilitates with navy.”
Federal Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne believes sharing Garden Island would be a “backward step”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
So Voyager goes,already replaced by Explorer of the Sea. Plus Two more ships to Sydney, Norwegian Jewel and Silver Muse. Therefore one ship goes three arrive. Some crisis. With four proper cruise ship berths that equals some 1400 sship berth cdays plus overflow of two anchotages for tendering there is no crisis. And as other correspondants have mentioned, what about the cruisers from other cities around Australia that are tired of paying to travel to Sydney and bored with the dearth of choices of places to travel from Sydney.
I’m in Melbourne, send the ships here – the cost of airline travel on top of the cruise fare is enough to sway our family towards a holiday other than cruising, which is a shame as we have taken a few cruises and really enjoyed them
I agree! How about more cruise terminals around Australia?
Brisbane has lost Royal Caribbean ships now until the new terminal is built in late 2019. Qld government should have had this terminal built years ago.
So now Queenslanders are paying more to fly interstate to board ships just like passengers from Adelaide & Darwin.
Come on Qld get your act together!
With places like the Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast & Great Barrier Reef why don’t we have more terminals to cater for these mega tourism dollars just waiting to be spent.
The new Brisbane terminal should be a major priority for Sate Government as we too are losing big money in an already struggling tourism industry.
Now that Sydney is losing ships too isn’t it time to address the problem and fast track a plan so we don’t lose more international liners coming to our shores!
Sydney has had it so good for so long with many cruise ships making Sydney Harbour their home base during our summer months. It is time we had more cruise ships calling Brisbane home. Flying to Sydney to catch a ship is no fun, baggage is limited to 20-23ks while ship baggage allowance is more than twice what one can carry by plane making packing a nightmare. The sooner Brisbane can cater for more shipping the better.
When is Voyage of the Seas pulling out? Please tell me not this year. I am booked on her in November
While the decision to redeploy Voyager to Asia may be a commercial one, there is still an issue with berthing that limits the larger ships and the growth of the tourism industry in Australia. Sydney is a known gateway for International tourists, some of whom contribute to the cruise economy, so we can’t ignore the fact that they may not fly to another city in Australia to embark on a cruise, yet we want to attract that International Dollar! (yes, I acknowledge that many Australians would happily embark from other cities).
Lets approach this calmly and involve Federal Govt input to consider an inclusion of cruise facilities in the upgrade of Garden Island. There is potential for easy access off Cowper Wharf Road to enable the Naval Facilities to remain secure and then add additional wharves on the eastern side of Garden Island to compensate for those allocated to the cruise industry. The financial benefit to the state from the additional port fees would surely cover the upgrade of the facility.
If they home port these larger cruise ships at Darwin, Adelaide, Fremantle or Melbourne, could a package deal be done with our rail systems and cruise lines if passengers have a few days extra time on their hands to catch the XP train between Sydney and Melbourne, the Ghan goes from Adelaide through to Darwin so you will see the true beauty of the Australian inland or even the Indian Pacific which travels across to Fremantle. It would cost a little more in time and money but you would get the best of both land and sea and you could also throw in the beautiful state of Tasmania.
Just a thought, there is so much beauty and history to see in and around Australia.
There’s no crisis. We have served more ships than this before without problem. The truth is a commercial decision to re locate to china as she was originally intended. And the largest ship is here longer.
Voyager has been here 6 years and rhapsody rolled off after a similar time even though still popular – and nothing to do with port availability.
As the last para mentions this is actually just heavy lobbying to give an industry more facilities – and wanting us to pay.
Whereas Adelaide once again misses out. People in Adelaide must make millions for the airline companies having to get to Sydney, Fremantle, Melbourne, Brisbane and now even Darwin.. even a couple of cruises that go further than kangaroo island, port Lincoln, Melbourne and last longer than 2-5 days would fill up without the added cost of extravel. Try thinking of the passengers instead of the almighty dollar sometimes, you might be surprised!