Adelaide a homeport for cruise ships?

[Ho Really]

SATC chases cruise growth

The boss of South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) has said the tourism body will continue to lobby airlines and cruise ships for additional capacity to the region. Chief executive Ian Darbyshire said Adelaide has major potential as a homeport for cruise ships, with Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island also seen as key ports. “SA hosted 27 cruise ship arrivals last season, bringing up to 50,000 passengers and crew,” he said. Air capacity is also a key focus, with the number of international arrivals doubling since 2003. Adelaide receives 29 direct international flights per week, up from 13 in 2003.

Travel Today

It's great! They've realised Adelaide can be a homeport for cruise ships. I've been thinking about this for years!! I know ATHENA has homeported here in the last two season, but what we want are cruise ships two, three times larger. Something in the region of 1,500-2,500 passengers.

Kangaroo Island alone has so much potential. Victor Harbor as well with its connection to Goolwa and The Coorong. Hope these guys start promoting this heavily to those cruise lines that already homeport in Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Fremantle. Our next step is to link the airport to Outer Harbor with a light rail link to Keswick and then for trains to go through to the Outer Harbor line at the Old Adelaide Gaol. Also the hotel at the airport should start cracking! The potential is there.

Cheers

[iTouch]

is it just me or is the SA tourism commission in an energetic mood at the moment?

[crawf]

Well they are currently holding the Australian Tourism Exchange.

[stumpjumper]

A non-slipping refit fron topsides paint touchup to mechanical repair and refit at Techport would inject some life and purpose into that underused, undertenanted facility.

We could also look at the logistics of becoming a revictualling centre for ships. After all we have plenty of clean, export level food available here. Even without food holding facilities in the Port in the short term, we could deliver chilled meat, veg, dairy etc straight to the ships in appropriate trucks.

[RayRichards]

SATC chases cruise growth

The boss of South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) has said the tourism body will continue to lobby airlines and cruise ships for additional capacity to the region. Chief executive Ian Darbyshire said Adelaide has major potential as a homeport for cruise ships, with Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island also seen as key ports. “SA hosted 27 cruise ship arrivals last season, bringing up to 50,000 passengers and crew,” he said. Air capacity is also a key focus, with the number of international arrivals doubling since 2003. Adelaide receives 29 direct international flights per week, up from 13 in 2003.

Travel Today

It's great! They've realised Adelaide can be a homeport for cruise ships. I've been thinking about this for years!! I know ATHENA has homeported here in the last two season, but what we want are cruise ships two, three times larger. Something in the region of 1,500-2,500 passengers.

Kangaroo Island alone has so much potential. Victor Harbor as well with its connection to Goolwa and The Coorong. Hope these guys start promoting this heavily to those cruise lines that already homeport in Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne and Fremantle. Our next step is to link the airport to Outer Harbor with a light rail link to Keswick and then for trains to go through to the Outer Harbor line at the Old Adelaide Gaol. Also the hotel at the airport should start cracking! The potential is there.

Cheers

What a top few ideas that you have mate

More large vessel movement in SA, particularly Port Adelaide is vital for both tourism and jobs. Linking them up with Public Transport (Read - Light or Heavy Rail) to the airport, keswick terminal and Town as you said will do more to re-energise the Port than all the cafes and prefabricated earth coloured dwellings will ever do.

Ray.

[Ho Really]

A non-slipping refit fron topsides paint touchup to mechanical repair and refit at Techport would inject some life and purpose into that underused, undertenanted facility.

We could also look at the logistics of becoming a revictualling centre for ships. After all we have plenty of clean, export level food available here. Even without food holding facilities in the Port in the short term, we could deliver chilled meat, veg, dairy etc straight to the ships in appropriate trucks.

Any expansion of the marine industry is vital for Port Adelaide and SA. As you've said, chandlery and provisioning can be expanded. We already supply cruise ships with fresh Adelaide Hills, Kangaroo Island, Limecoast and Eyre Peninsula produce. What we want is more of it, especially if we get a large cruise ship homeported here. Then we have the multiplying effect in other ancillary industries. On the other scale: yachts and other marine craft need to be maintained. And this is where Techport could come in handy. We could start building pleasure crafts ourselves like WA and Queensland already do. Also building more (environmentally friendly) marinas expands the industry, whether being in tourism, chandlery, maintenance, etc.

Cheers

[Ho Really]

What a top few ideas that you have mate

More large vessel movement in SA, particularly Port Adelaide is vital for both tourism and jobs. Linking them up with Public Transport (Read - Light or Heavy Rail) to the airport, keswick terminal and Town as you said will do more to re-energise the Port than all the cafes and prefabricated earth coloured dwellings will ever do.

Ray.

Thanks. Homeporting a large cruise ship in Adelaide is a big deal. However not many people understand the value. We would get thousands of tourists every week from interstate and overseas boarding a cruise ship here instead of interstate. They could also spend time before and after around Adelaide or in the rest of the state. Hotels, restaurants, etc. that live off tourism would benefit. We just need that extra bit of infrastructure up-and-running to put the icing on the cake. Let's hope governments do something about it.

Cheers

PS. European cruise line MSC Cruises is thinking about homeporting a cruise ship here in Oz in a couple of years. The SA government should seriously start lobbying this company now, and at the same time start putting money into projects I've mentioned (and anywhere else it benefits tourism and ancillary industries).

[Wayno]

to whom should these great ideas be directed?

[Ho Really]

to whom should these great ideas be directed?

Does anyone in the SA government need to be an Einstein to know that certain things all go together? The people at SATC seem to know the score, but it's not their job to take care of infrastructure. Now it's up to the SA government to do the rest. Minister of Tourism I guess to start with, but pick any minister who could get the ball rolling.

Cheers

[chrism4549]

One of the options my wife and I looked at was a cruise in Australia when planning our vacation. We looked at Royal Caribbean since we use them here in the US. Everything pretty much leaves out of Sydney and a number go to some of the islands and NZ in particular. A few go to ports in Cairns or Tasmania. I think a good medium length trip could go from Sydney to Melbourne to Adelaide and around Tasmania and back. When in Adelaide you could opt for a day trip to Kangaroo island for the family or a wine excursion to do a vineyard tour and tasting.

Another option is to petition the cruise line. RC makes three stops to Adelaide on their 18 day trips, looks like, when they leave out of Perth and go to NZ. Demand and feedback drives them to ports more often. And incentives.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacrui ... cation=ADL

[Ho Really]

One of the options my wife and I looked at was a cruise in Australia when planning our vacation. We looked at Royal Caribbean since we use them here in the US. Everything pretty much leaves out of Sydney and a number go to some of the islands and NZ in particular. A few go to ports in Cairns or Tasmania. I think a good medium length trip could go from Sydney to Melbourne to Adelaide and around Tasmania and back. When in Adelaide you could opt for a day trip to Kangaroo island for the family or a wine excursion to do a vineyard tour and tasting.

Another option is to petition the cruise line. RC makes three stops to Adelaide on their 18 day trips, looks like, when they leave out of Perth and go to NZ. Demand and feedback drives them to ports more often. And incentives.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacrui ... cation=ADL

Hi Chris, welcome to Sensational Adelaide! In the 2003-2004 season STAR PRINCESS visited Adelaide 4 times. The cruises were to Melbourne, Tasmania and New Zealand. Adelaide was a port-of-call, not the homeport. Since then no other large cruise ship (or cruise line) has done this itinerary. It is a real pity, just as you have suggested. Adelaide has connecting flights to North America via Sydney and Auckland and I think also Brisbane and Melbourne. So there is no real problem for the North American tourist to get here (same goes for Europeans), although I understand the long flights. South Australia also has other regions on offer for those wanting pre or post cruise tours out of Adelaide. You only have to visit the state’s tourism website at: http://www.southaustralia.com to get an idea. The opportunities are there.

Yes, our state government will have to do some lobbying. Regarding petitioning cruise lines: cruise executives do read and listen, they are frequent visitors to the online cruise forums. Plenty of feedback there.

Cheers

PS. Re cruises keep in touch.

[chrism4549]

Carnival is coming to Australia
http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post ... y/138195/1

One of the big trends in 2011 is Australia and New Zealand cruising according to this article with two lines adding another ship to the general area in 2011 and 2012.
http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1198

So, good news for you. Interesting is that these lines seem to be diverting ships from the US to Australia and Europe. I guess they've done some long term economic projections.

[Ho Really]

Been a few years since this thread has had posts or been updated. The only cruise ship homeported in Adelaide, MV ATHENA, has since gone. Her operators going bankrupt. Not because it didn't have patronage out of Adelaide (they were doing rather well), but because it didn't pay its bills [in Europe]. No other cruise company since has had an interest in homeporting here. P&O Cruises will give it a try with 3 cruises in 2015 with PACIFIC JEWEL. Two of those cruises are roundtrips, the third terminating in Fremantle. In April 2014, PACIFIC PEARL will visit us. She'll use Adelaide as a departure port on a cruise to Sydney. But, we're still waiting for someone to seriously base a ship here. Maybe if the above cruises do well it's possible P&O (Carnival Australia) will consider extending homeporting out of Adelaide. I hope so, but I would rather see a new player enter the Aussie market, someone such as MSC Cruises or NCL, two major cruise lines that currently don't homeport ships in Australia.

I guess we may still be a couple of years away before we are a contender in this area. We will have to boost our international appeal (not so much domestically) and attract more international flights and improve some of our transport and tourism infrastructure too.

Is the State Government/SATC [still] pursuing this? I hope they are.

Cheers

[Maximus]

Ho, what's the condition of the Outer Harbour cruise ship terminal these days?

I've never been there myself, but some of the images published in the media in recent years have been less than, um... postcard-worthy.

[Ho Really]

Maximus, haven't been in there for a very long time. I've seen a couple of images of the interior of the top floor, where passengers embark/disembark. It seems in good order. Also heard from those that have used it to be OK, but some have said the baggage area on the ground floor is a bit of a shambles. If P&O Cruises is happy to come here in 2014-15 I would assume the facilities to be acceptable. It wouldn't be the worst terminal in our region. Though if you want to attract large ships to homeport here you'd need a larger terminal with the associated parking. We're fortunate enough that the train station is only about 150 metres away. What Outer Harbor needs is some sprucing up, but that's a task Flinders Ports may not take up as their major interest is freight not passengers.

Cheers