Royal Caribbean International Australia managing director Adam Armstrong has confirmed the company is sending one of its giant cruise liners to Asia for the 2018-19 summer cruise season because Sydney is too full.
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Mr Armstrong said Royal Caribbean is still looking to bring more cruise ships to Wollongong but regrettably Port Kembla was not quite ready to be Sydney’s second passenger terminal. He announced Explorer of the Seas was now scheduled to make another visit in February 2019 but the company could not do turnaround visits at Port Kembla yet because it needs more guest facilities and infrastructure.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward said the issue about a back-up cruise port for Sydney had not yet been debated in NSW Parliament but he has already invited Tourism minister Adam Marshall to look at what Wollongong has to offer. He said Port Kembla definitely had the potential to be Sydney’s second terminal. “Sydney is not the only answer. We are a stones throw away. If Sydney is full..we can do it.”
Destination Wollongong general manager Mark Sleigh said there has been some “excellent discussions with Royal Caribbean over the last 48 hours. We are excited to see that further bookings have been made this week for future calls into Port Kembla and believe that this will only continue to grow over the coming years – including the possibility of turnarounds”.
Mr Armstrong said “sadly we've had to redeploy Voyager of the Seas to Asia for the 2018-19 summer cruise season, however we'll still operate three megaliners out of Sydney. Radiance of the Seas will call at Wollongong in January 2018 and Explorer of the Seas in March 2018, plus there is a new cruise announced. Explorer will visit the Illawarra in February 2019. While home-porting at Port Kembla isn't feasible right now, since without guest facilities and infrastructure in place, it would be incredibly challenging from a logistics and cost perspective, we’ll continue to bring ships to Wollongong”.
“We're committed to working with the people of the Illawarra to continue to grow it's cruise tourism credentials,” Mr Armstrong said.
Related story:
Videos from Illawarra's first summer of cruising:
Radiance of the Seas inaugural cruise industry visit
Voyager of the Seas' second visit
Norwegian Star's first visit
Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
