‘‘What a great place to stop... Yuk’’
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‘‘Port Kembla? REALLY? Isn’t that where the steel works is?’’
‘‘Welcome to the lovely illawarra now here is port kembla lol’’.
Sigh.
These were some of the first comments to grace the Illawarra Mercury’s Facebook page when we broke the exciting news Royal Caribbean had confirmed it would bring one of its cruise ships, Radiance of the Seas, to this region.
People had warned there was a negative stigma around Wollongong, but I failed to realise it was self-perpetuating.
In fairness, after the initial negative comments, a lot of people did turn the debate around, realising the immense potential this region has to offer cruise-ship visitors.
It balanced out fairly quickly when people actually read the story and realised the ship was only docking at Port Kembla and the more than 2000 visitors will be fed out to attractions in the region from that point.
In fact though, working ports have tourism potential in their own right... but more on that later.
On arrival into Wollongong some weeks ago it was pure chance one of this editor’s first questions to a bunch of locals was: ‘‘Do cruise ships ever dock here?’’
It was quickly met with questions of ‘‘why would they?’’
I immediately quashed the urge to respond “why wouldn’t they?” – it was perhaps better to wait and get a feel for the region before responding.
Funnily enough it was only weeks later our newsroom was being briefed in preparation for that very scenario.
That three years of persistence from Destination Wollongong board member Leigh Colacino and others paid dividends.
On the back of some bad news this week, it was a pleasure to be able to shout some positive news from the rafters.
Getting back to the point about working ports, the reason for this blow-in from Tassie asking the question about cruise ships and Port Kembla was from personal experience.
Cruise ships are regular visitors to the port of Burnie on the north-west coast of Tasmania and it too is a working port.
A main feature of the Burnie port is two gigantic piles of woodchips of Tasmanian timber, which get exported around the world – hardly a tourist attraction, right?
Wrong.
One of the things tourists love about their visits into Burnie is witnessing a working port in action and the history behind Port Kembla has a story that is its own selling point.
Having seen the economic benefits first-hand of these cruise-ship visits into the north-west coast of Tassie, my response would have to be that Wollongong is onto a winner and that it has so much to offer.
Don’t be surprised if this is the start of something big – if one company sees it as viable and attractive, so will others.