| ACA Update 29 Sep 21

WITH Jill Abel, CEO Australian Cruise Association – Green light: When Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk spoke last week about working with the cruise industry to develop

“Queensland-based small cruise holidays when the vaccination rates hit 80%”, it created a flurry of media interest for both CLIA and ACA.

While that statement ignored the already successful re-start that happened some time ago with expedition cruising, it did give us the opportunity to again showcase the important economic role our industry plays.

While the Brisbane Cruise Terminal opened for business some time back, it has only seen the arrival of one navy ship, and will function as a vaccination centre in the short term.

Port infrastructure like this is sitting idle around Australia and communities require the dollars brought in by cruise to make businesses sustainable.

This includes the major tour operators in gateway cities, but also those in rural Australia, delivering food, wildlife and indigenous experiences.

As I was able to share with the media, these businesses are on their knees waiting for the dollars that cruise passengers are eager to spend.

We were also able to discuss the modelling we have from the safe cruise re-start around the world.

Not only are the health protocols helping cruise lines to operate with confidence, but Carnival is also reporting that onboard revenue is “off the charts” as passengers come out of lockdown with increased spending money.