Bay to host five liners

Ships crusing in to deliver summer tourist boom

CORIO Bay will be dotted with mega liners this summer as the city makes the most of five visiting cruise ships this season.

The first cruise ship, The Regatta, will dock today at 7am with 700 passengers and 300 employees on board, who will spend 24 hours in the region.

Twelve bus tours have been booked to showcase the Geelong region’s highlights to the visitors before they depart for Melbourne.

Thousands of cruise ship tourists and crew members will descend on the region in coming months, with five cruiser visits scheduled for Corio Bay this summer.

Analysis of the economic impact of this summer’s cruise ship season will help the City of Greater Geelongs’s preparations of a business case promoting improvements to infrastructure around Cun- ningham Pier.

The focus on improving Cunningham Pier signals that the council has largely abandoned any push to build a new Yarra St Pier to berth cruise ships.

Under then-mayor Darryn Lyons, the revival of Yarra St Pier was deemed a top priority. However it failed to attract any funding from state or federal governments.

The visiting cruise ships will dock in Corio Bay and visitors are brought to shore through the Royal Geelong Yacht Club.

The Seabourn Encore, which can hold 600 passengers and 400 crew, is visiting Geelong in January, and again in February.

The Norweigan Jewel, which can carry 2376 passengers and 1069 crew, will make its way to the city in January, and the Seven Seas Navigator, with a capacity of 490 passengers and 340 crew, will visit in February.

“We’ll be down at the yacht club to meet and greet the pas- sengers as they disembark and embark the ship and we’ll be distributing information sheets and maps to passengers highlighting wonderful things they can do in Greater Geelong,” City of Greater Geelong director of investment and attraction Brett Luxford said.

“This is a great opportunity for the whole of our region and definitely an initiative actively supported by the city and Tourism Greater Geelong and The Bellarine.”