Quebec braces for marine invasion this summer
It pales next to the British armada that sailed up the treacherous St. Lawrence River in the spring of 1759, but this summer a marine invasion of impressive scope is set to ply the historic waterway to Quebec City.
For the record, Vice-admiral Charles Saunders commanded a fleet of 320 vessels, which, to give an idea of the logistics involved, included seven livestock transports and two hospital ships, to support the 47 battleships sent to take Nouvelle France. More than 20,000 sailors and soldiers were aboard.
The ships coming in numbers this season are in fact a collection of wooden tall ships, harkening back to the golden age of sail, but mostly their modern descendants, the luxurious, high-tech behemoths from a variety of cruise ship lines.
Obviously, there's something to this ocean-liner experience based on the relentless boom in demand. About 25 million people around the world are expected to take a sea cruise this year, a million more than last year, and an increase of more than 60 percent since 2005. About 80 new ocean ships currently are on order over the next 10 years, to add to the existing fleet of 480.
Quebec City, being a well-established tourism mecca, has been a major beneficiary of the increased traffic. The Port of Quebec is bracing to welcome 131 visits from 34 separate cruise ships this season, five more than the previous record year of 2015.
Two new vessels will make their debut in the port, the Viking Sky and Silver Muse, both of which are scheduled to arrive in late September. The first ship of the season, the Veendam, out of Amsterdam, made its 66th visit to Quebec since 1996 last week.
All told, some 200,000 passengers are expected to pour into the port, a jawdropping 30 percent increase over last year. Port officials credit the surge to their own marketing as well as festivities for the 150th anniversary of Confederation - more about that later.
As hot as Quebec is as a cruise ship destination, British Columbia is by far the biggest Canadian draw, with a 66 percent share of the estimated $3.2 billion economic impact of the cruise industry in 2016, according to a recent study done for major Canadian cruise promoters. Quebec has a 15 percent share.
The report found there's been an overall 34 percent increase in cruise-related spending in Canada since 2012. Perhaps surprisingly given the concerted effort by port attractions to part passengers of their dollars, it is the ships and crew that account for the majority of on-shore spending. Fuel, food, hotel supplies and port fees account for nearly a billion dollars spent in Canadian ports of call.
While Quebec City is the most popular destinations in the province by a wide margin, Montreal and smaller ports like Gaspé and Saguenay still share in a goodly part of the cruise spoils. In 2016, passengers spent $13.4 million in Montreal, $18.3 million in Quebec City, and $4.5 million in other ports.
It should be noted that cruise ship traffic to Montreal is vulnerable to the height of bridges, tides and water levels. The Veendam mentioned above, for example, has to time its passage under the Quebec Bridge at half- or low-tide. Some ships are just too big to make it under any of the St. Lawrence bridges, the Queen Mary 2, for one.
Even Gaspé, one of the earliest destinations of European visitors. is cashing in on the cruise craze. Thirty ships visited the historic port last year, including the Queen Mary 2, bringing a total of 20,600 passengers and 12,000 crew.
Gaspé, incidentally, will be one of the several stops an international flotilla of tall ships will be making along the St. Lawrence this summer, as they sail their way to the big Rendez-vous 2017 regatta in Quebec City in July.
The 40-ship parade is said to be the largest gathering of sea-going vessels in the city since 1984. That summer some 67 ships gathered in the place to which Jacques Cartier, who gave the St. Lawrence its name, navigated the Grande Hermine in 1535.