Among those were Sue and Naomi Clyne and Karen Browne, of Melbourne, who had their hands full with shopping bags on their way back to the Royal Caribbean ship.

GPT Group regional general manager Antony Keenan said it was even busier than Boxing Day in Wollongong. He said locals and people from the ship all took advantage of the special and shop owners were very happy with the Boxing Day sales on Monday and Tuesday. “We have certainly seen a lot of the cruise ship people here with the lanyards on. They are certainly shopping and taking advantage of all the discounts that are on offer at the moment”.

Mr Keenan felt having the shuttles drop visitors off in the Arts Precinct had definitely resulted in more coming into Crown Street Mall. “I think that certainly helped. We saw a lot of people walking up from where they got dropped off. Council also running the trackless train helped as well”.

GPT/Wollongong Central is now working with Destination Wollongong to see how the city can learn from Tuesday and deliver an even better result when Voyager returns on January 18. Many expect that when people are back at work on a normal week day the city may end up being even busier. “It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the cruise ships coming to town. Obviously retailers are seeing the benefit of it. I think a lot of the crew as well took advantage of all the sales. Yesterday was busy and it feels busier today,” Mr Keenan said.

Naomi Hudson, of Lee & Me, said the business opened especially for the cruise ship arrival on Tuesday and they were happy they did. “There has definitely been a lot of cruise ship passengers around. There have been a lot of take away coffees ordered. It is really nice having them shuttled into the arts precinct and having so many new people coming in trying our food”.