In less than 100 days the Illawarra will welcome the first cruise liner into Port Kembla. In the second and final part of a Q&A series, Destination Wollongong general manager Mark Sleigh took time out with Illawarra Mercury editor Julian O’Brien to explain why he believes this will be “a turning point” for the region.
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Julian O’Brien: We’ve seen ports on the South Coast like Eden leading the way and showing exactly what can be done.
Mark Sleigh: Eden’s a tremendous example and the Federal Government is investing another $40 million in the port to be able to facilitate larger ships in coming in is a tremendous thing for tourism on the South Coast.
And I think anything that happens down there can only benefit us. But the opportunity here in Wollongong is slightly different to the opportunity in Eden. Eden is a destination port and will always be a shore excursion port.
What we’re talking about here in Wollongong is potentially turning into a turnaround port. What that offers is people get on in the morning and get off in the afternoon. It’s two different groups of people. We’re talking about turning over 5000 people instead of 2500 people each time the actual ship comes in.
Being located so conveniently to Sydney, 73 kilometres away, we’re able to facilitate very similar services to what they can facilitate in the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney. Unfortunately we don’t have the Sydney Harbour Bridge or the Opera House but we have so much else to offer.
The other exciting part about being a turnaround port is we can provide something Sydney can’t and that’s the opportunity for long term parking. Domestic cruisers at the moment are catching public transport or getting dropped off at the Overseas Passenger Terminal.
What we could do is create an environment very similar to Blue Emu at the Sydney airport where you park, you get your shuttle bus over to the ship, you go for your cruise and your car is ready there for you to go. That’s something that’s never going to be achievable in Sydney Harbour but it’s certainly achievable in Wollongong immediately.
JOB: In terms of passenger spend, what do we know while they are here and what (passengers) will they bring to local tourism?
MS: So for a shore excursion, which is what we’ve got here on October 30, we’re looking at somewhere between $160-$220 per person depending on whether they’re domestic or international and a couple of other variables.
When you upscale that to becoming a turnaround port your metrics change considerably. So all of a sudden you’re spending $450 for a domestic visitor, $760 for an international visitor.
There’s far greater economic benefit - and not withstanding the perception changing opportunities for Wollongong - the actual economic opportunities are considerable.
JOB: The tourism offerings here within our short arm span are incredible and diverse aren’t they?
MS: It really is. I think we’re incredibly lucky on the South Coast. It’s very transitional - we have things for adventure seekers, we have things for families, things for the grey nomads.
The tours that have been selected by Royal Caribbean and the tours that will be available for sale on the day at Lang Park celebrate that diversity. No matter who you are when you get off that ship, there’s going to be something very exciting for you to do.
We’ve got Nan Tien (Temple) for example which is a fantastic tour they are going to be doing off the ship. HARS museum is another one which a lot of local residents wouldn’t really realise how fantastic that is.
But when you bring in a company like Royal Caribbean to town and you introduce them to all the incredible product, you actually understand how world class we are in the tourism industry and we should celebrate it a lot more as a community.
JOB: What can local people do to really support on October 30?
MS: Last week we launched an ambassador program in conjunction with the Illawarra Retirement Trust and that’s very much based around the Sydney Olympics volunteer program where Sydney came out, they dressed up in their colourful shirts and hats and they went out and said “g’day” to the visitors.
What we want to see and the environment we’re trying to create with IRT is something very similar for Wollongong.
Wollongong is very lucky it has that friendly and engaging personality for 365 days of the year so what we want to do is put a shirt and a hat on that and show the quality of people and the fantastic natural asset we have there.
You can read part one of the Q&A here.