A jewel for King’s crown?

OUTGOING King Island Mayor Julie Arnold has told Cruise Weekly she is keen to see the Bass Strait destination develop its cruise industry over the next few years, off the back of the overburden created by the Dolphin Mine.

One of the largest tungsten reserves in Australia, Arnold said the mine provides a “one-off” opportunity to build an all-weather port for King (pictured), which would change the Island’s tourism market “quite substantially”.

Presently, King can only accept tender visits, which results in a disappointing number of missed calls, a number of tourism stakeholders on King expressed to Cruise Weekly.

The expansion of the Island’s current port to be able to take larger ships would ensure the viability of all cruise calls, providing confidence for King’s tourism businesses, Arnold said.

“We’d like to see an expansion of the time cruise passengers spend on the island, and that’s a bit difficult when you don’t have an all-weather port,” she said.

Arnold added investment in an expanded port should go into the Island’s accommodation offerings, which could see King attract overnight calls.

“What we need to do is to work with the cruise companies to make sure that we fit in with what they want as well,” she said.

“We have to be very careful if we have large delegations, and we’ve got three or four promotions with Keep Australia Beautiful, our golf open, etc, we have to try and schedule those so they don’t clash, because we need to make sure that everybody has acceptable accommodation.”