Cruise heavyweights in town for restart of multi-million-dollar sector
With less than two months until South Australia welcomes its first cruise ship since pre pandemic, industry heavyweights have flown into Adelaide for a series of workshops across the state.
The South Australian Tourism Commission is partnering with the Australian Cruise Association (ACA), Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and Tourism Australia to deliver practical workshops for tourism businesses to prepare for the restart of cruising in South Australia.
With a regional focus, workshops will be held in each location of a major port: yesterday in Port Lincoln and Adelaide, and today in Kangaroo Island. They will assist tourism businesses to gain insights into how they can work with cruise lines visiting the state to maximise economic impact and improve the passenger experience.
Workshop participants will be briefed on the Eastern Seaboard Cruise Protocols which outline public health measures for cruising in Australia, approved by SA Health, such as vaccination requirements and on-board health screening, isolation and reporting procedures. Participants will also hear about international cruise industry protocols that are in place around the world.
Workshop speakers include:
- Jill Abel – CEO, Australian Cruise Association (ACA)
- Joel Katz – Managing Director, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia
- Michael Mihajlov – Destination Director, Carnival Australia
- Jay McKenzie – CEO, Bob Wood Cruise Group
- Paul Murray – Industry Relations Manager, Tourism Australia.
It comes as more cruise ship visits have been added to the upcoming season, now at 106 scheduled cruise visits across SA from September 2022 to April 2023. It trumps the 82 visits made in 2018-19, when the sector contributed $145 million to the state’s visitor economy.
South Australian Tourism Commission Destination Development executive director Nick Jones welcomed the return of cruising, as tourism in South Australia continues to go from strength-to-strength and more visitors move about the state.
“These workshops are an important step in our planning of the safe and successful restart of this once $145 million sector – providing a chance for tourism operators to engage with industry decisionmakers, learn about the public health measures in place, and find ways to maximise the opportunities that cruise presents,” he said.
“With 106 cruise visits now set for our shores in the upcoming season, the restart of this valuable sector of tourism will further drive the recovery of our state’s visitor economy.”
Australian Cruise Association CEO Jill Abel said “cruising is certainly back” with over 18 million passengers having cruised in more than 100 overseas countries since August of 2020.
“The Australian summer is gearing up to pre pandemic levels with future bookings and new cruise line visits looking extremely positive. These workshops will provide an update to tourism businesses on the emerging global trends for shore excursions and destination management projects,” she said.