Cruising into summer
Port of Sydney gearing up for busiest cruise ship season on record
It should be a busy cruise ship season in Sydney.
What is expected to be the busiest cruise season in the port of Sydney’s history sets sail Sunday with the first ship visit of the year.
Holland America’s Veendam, one of the most frequent visitors to the port, will make the inaugural call for the 2017 season.
In all, there will be 90 ship visits this season, representing more than 134,000 passengers and almost 54,000 crewmembers.
“Our summer visitation is up a huge amount for this season coming over last year and overall we are expecting a 67 per cent increase in ship calls in 2017 over 2016,” Bernadette MacNeil, manager of cruise marketing and development for the Sydney Ports Corp., said in an interview Thursday.
As for the factors behind the increase in traffic, MacNeil attributed it largely to satisfaction on the part of the cruise lines with the Canada-New England itinerary and resolution of an emissions control regulation that had been looming over the industry. As well, Holland America had deployed some vessels elsewhere last year because their fleet was down by a couple of ships, which has since been resolved.
“Cruise lines have to make their decisions as to where they’re going at least two years out,” MacNeil said. “We knew that this was going to be a huge year for all of us here in this region.”
And as the industry works a couple of seasons in advance, MacNeil said there is interest in the construction of the second cruise ship berth at the port of Sydney, for which provincial and federal funding was announced in January. The Cape Breton Regional Municipality had already committed its onethird funding for the $20-million project.
“We have been working to say let’s get through 2017, let’s realize that we’re going to have our challenges, and that by the fall of 2018 we will have a second berth that will be operational and functional,” MacNeil said.
The port is working on the 2018 schedule, she added.
“We will be noting the gross registered tonnage for each
vessel and the size, et cetera, and have to sit down with the owner’s engineer to say what’s the design going to look like, for us who have to speak to the cruise lines as to what vessel would fit at what berth best,” MacNeil said.
This season will also feature
a visit from the Disney Magic in October and several visits from the Mein Schiff 6, from a cruise line that is new to the port this year, TUI Cruises. The Queen Mary II will also visit on Sept. 26.
On Sept. 23 and Sept. 26 there are three ships each scheduled to arrive at the port.
The ongoing discussion about ways to improve downtown Sydney and make it more attractive will also help with efforts to better the product offered to cruise visitors who choose to stay in town rather than go on excursions, MacNeil said.
The season will come to a close on Oct. 30 with a visit by the Seven Seas Mariner.