Tasmanian ports stand ready to welcome approximately 150 cruise ships during the 2022/23 season, delivering significant economic benefit to Tasmania's tourism sector and State more broadly.
Posted
29 July 2022
Tasmanian ports across the State will welcome about 150 cruise ship visits during the 2022/23 cruise ship season delivering significant economic benefit to the tourism sector and the State more broadly.
The cruise ship schedule, published on the TasPorts website (www.tasports.com.au/cruise) shows 66 visits scheduled for Hobart, 42 visits for Burnie and 19 for Port Arthur. A further six visits are planned for Coles Bay and two for Bell Bay and the Tamar.
The Hobart visit number includes seven turnaround calls by Coral Discoverer which will again call Hobart its home port for the Tasmanian cruise ship season.
TasPorts Chief Executive Officer Anthony Donald said the company was a strong and active supporter of cruise ship visits to Tasmania.
“TasPorts primary role is to facilitate trade for the benefit of the State and as the port operator, we’re looking forward to welcoming cruise vessels back to Tasmania waters following Government approval,” he said.
“The benefits of these visits to the Tasmanian visitor economy, particularly outside the State’s major cities, are obvious and welcomed by local tourism sector operators, including family-based businesses.
“Independent economic research confirms that the economic contribution of a single medium sized cruise ship visit to the state is more than $650,000 per visit. If you extrapolate that out over the cruise ship season, you very quickly get a sense of their overall value to the State.”
Mr Donald said he was pleased that interest among cruise ship companies in visiting the State’s traditional cruise ship ports continued to be strong.
“TasPorts has for some time been actively engaging with cruise lines, local government, local tourism operators and Commonwealth and Tasmanian authorities to prepare for a safe and effective return of cruise ships to Tasmania,” he said.
“This includes initiatives such as limiting the number of cruise ships in the Port of Hobart to no more than two at any one time and maximising disbursement of visitors and their associated spending across the state.”
Mr Donald thanked TasPorts’ cruise partners, the industry associations and cruise ship lines that had been nothing short of professional and collaborative in their approach to the re-establishment of visits.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the industry and Tourism Tasmania to ensure an ongoing effective and sustainable program of visits for the benefit of the State,” he said.
The first arrival for the season is scheduled for early November.