Record trade along the Crown Street retail and restaurant strip during the last visit by Voyager of the Seas is prompting businesses to put on extra staff for her return this Wednesday.
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GPT Group regional general manager Antony Keenan said the CBD was busier on December 27 than it was on Boxing Day when those sailing on Voyager took advantage of the sales. He said shop owners were very happy and that sentiment is being echoed along Crown Street as businesses look forward to Voyager’s return.
Arsh Kohli, of The Square, said he was so busy last time it was all hands on deck this Wednesday. “It was the busiest day we have ever had. We had more than 300 tourists come in. It was very busy but everyone was happy and patient. They all enjoyed being here and said they loved our city”.
Mr Kohli is putting on more staff and expanding the menu this Wednesday. “We are going to..make sure we can keep up with the demand and provide even more variety for the visitors so they have more reasons to remember Wollongong. Most of them were eating last time.”
Michael Yaglipinar, of Turkish Paradise, said Voyager’s last visit ranked up with New Year’s Eve and Santa Claus Pub Crawl as one of the three busiest days of the year. “Most of our customers I think were the crew. They sat outside. They wanted to have something different than on the boat. They enjoyed the sunshine, the beer and the food. Everything went down so well I am really looking forward to Wednesday”.
Zambrero manager Reece Murray said his team really engaged the visitors and they loved it. “We definitely saw a big spike in sales. There was a big increase in people coming into the store and walking along the street. We had people from Canada and many parts of the world”.
Lower East’s Louise Turner said passengers arriving in the Arts Precinct provided plenty of energy and with this visit being on a normal weekday she is expecting to be even busier. Other businesses who did more business than usual on December 27 were Florentine Collection, Downtown Pharmacy and Fuku on Crown Asian Cuisine. #cruisewollongong chair Cr Leigh Colacino said it was great to see so many businesses doing more trade as a result of cruise ship visits because that was his main reason for trying to lure the industry here. “Some of them had the best day of trade they have ever had”.
“They are very excited about the next visit. I think it is really interesting when you look at Christmas trade and Boxing Day trade. To have the busiest day the day the cruise ship came in (the day after Boxing Day) tells a really big story,” he said.
Cr Colacino is really proud of the way the city has embraced the same dream. He said it is one thing getting the ships to come in but making them feel so welcome that more want to come off the ship and visit the city centre was making Wollongong known as not only a port of call but a highly sought after shopping and dining experience destination.
“There is no where else in the world like us,” he said.
He said Wollongong was setting a new benchmark with the welcome being offered by so many volunteers and businesspeople and their employees.