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When the mid-size Radiance of the Seas liner slid into Wollongong’s Port Kembla Harbour last month, it was a moment for the history books. It marked the first time a cruise ship had called at the NSW city better known for steelworks, their blast furnaces dominating the skyline.
As passengers played minigolf on the top deck, they could cast an eye over the two features that have shaped the city — the industrial foreground and the dramatic escarpment. As the ship arrived, 2400 passengers saw locals watching from every vantage point on shore. Everyone loves a spectacle but this is also a city looking to recast itself. With the future of the steelworks a constant topic of consternation, and with the Illawarra’s unemployment rate at 6.5 per cent in September (only five of NSW’s 28 labour force regions have a higher rate), it’s no wonder Wollongong turned on such a warm welcome. Even Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery pulled on a volunteer T-shirt to greet passengers as they hopped off a shuttle bus to explore 60-plus stalls at a Welcome to Wollongong beachside marketplace.
Other passengers, numbering about 400, headed off on pre-booked excursions to regional attractions such as the Kiama blowhole, the Illawarra Fly Tree-top Walk and Gerringong’s Crooked River winery. Two coaches headed to Nan Tien, the southern hemisphere’s largest Buddhist temple, to learn about the religious complex and do a meditation session. It’s estimated that in passenger spending alone, the Radiance of the Seas visit injected $385,000 into the local economy. Even more cruise ship dollars will roll in this summer when the ship’s bigger sister, Voyager of the Seas, docks at Port Kembla on December 27 and January 18, bringing about 4200 passengers each time.
In many ways, Wollongong’s debut as a cruise destination was inevitable. Cruising is booming. Not so long ago, it was predicted a million Australians would be cruising by 2020. We hit that mark in 2014, prompting the figure to be revised to two million by 2020. The Australian Cruise Association, which markets Australia-Pacific cruise tourism and has members ranging from regional ports and state tourism agencies to shipping agents and ground handlers, crunched the numbers and found that, in 2015-16, cruise passenger expenditure increased to $1.069 billion from $903 million the previous year. When combined with crew and cruise ship expenditure, it climbs to $1.734bn.
Cruising is big business and, behind the scenes, competition runs high between the three main ground handlers that pitch for and run shore excursions in Australia.
Martin Bidgood, Sydney-based regional director of Intercruises, which handled the Radiance of the Seas in Wollongong, says: “The shore excursion experience globally but also locally has changed dramatically over the past five, six or seven years.
“With the evolution of the industry to a much younger demographic, plus lots of families travelling as well as domestic passengers, the shore excursion product has had to evolve. It’s so easy (for passengers) to research destinations before (they) get there. Everyone’s watching their dollars and trying to seek out value for money. A way that (our product) has evolved is in the exclusivity option. It doesn’t have to be something that’s completely impossible to do on your own but the opportunity for operators such as ourselves is to package up and create unique experiences.
“We might visit a cellar door that the general public can still visit but we might visit out of hours and get an exclusive tasting.”
Wineries are something Intercruises shore excursion manager James Coughlan knows more about after helping lay the groundwork in developing Busselton, a gateway to Western Australia’s Margaret River region, as a port of call. “We went there a dozen times with Carnival representatives, worked with the locals, created the tour program from scratch,” he says. “We’re involved with all the ships coming in there over the next two years for Carnival Corporation, including (Cunard’s) Queen Mary 2 on February 13.”
Passengers have raved about visiting Aravina Estate for a degustation meal. “Some Cunard guests have said that’s the best excursion they’ve experienced,” says Coughlan. “It doesn’t sell all the time but, when it does, it’s a home run.”
Tyler Wood, co-owner and chief executive of Gold Coast-based Bob Wood Cruise Group, says: “It’s up to us as ground operators to be on-trend.”
Food-based tours, such as visiting a Sunshine Coast feijoa farm or a progressive dinner through Brisbane’s CBD, are popular, he says. Tours also have changed to appeal to repeat international passengers (who have already done city tours or seen a koala) as well as domestic travellers. Australians, Wood says, want family-oriented activities such as a half-day surf lesson, kayaking the Brisbane River, zip-lining at Mount Tamborine or river-drift snorkelling on far north Queensland’s Mossman River.
“Soft adventure is the name of the game,” he says. Ground operators “are all out to deliver new ideas and be the first in the market (but) the moment you think (of an idea) is the first day that it starts to get old.”
Abercrombie & Kent’s shore excursions and land programs manager Toby Biddick works with mainstream lines and high-end operators such as Silversea, Seabourn and Crystal Cruises. Those passengers, he says, typically want small groups and authentic experiences such as going ashore at the tiny Elcho Island community of Banthula in the Northern Territory, which was devastated by a cyclone last year.
Passengers aboard Silversea’s Silver Discoverer visited last month and, after the welcome to country, broke into smaller groups to try spear-throwing, dot painting and other activities. Biddick did a shift selling baskets. Seeing the weavers’ reaction when he handed over more than $1000 from sales was, he says, “an awesome, emotional moment”.
At the other end of the scale is the planning going into a New Year’s Eve gala for Crystal Symphony passengers. Crystal Cruises managing director and senior vice-president Australia Karen Christensen won’t reveal details of the Sydney Harbour event but says “it’s going to be quite spectacular”. As Crystal Symphony later cruises from Melbourne to Tokyo, it will make maiden calls for the line at Alotau and Kiriwina in Papua New Guinea and Champagne Bay, Vanuatu.
Despite the excitement surrounding maiden calls, ACA chief executive Jill Abel says the challenge for destinations lies in maintaining enthusiasm. One place doing just that is Burnie in northwest Tasmania, which attracts “extraordinary” port ratings from passengers, she says. “It’s the people that make the whole difference,” she says. “The mayor is there every cruise visit welcoming; there are the volunteer groups, and that community involvement and genuine interest in the cruise passengers.”
Bidgood believes “the industry is dependent on the guest experience … that’s the key driver”. He says, “Ships are movable assets and, if they don’t deliver in Australia, the lines take them elsewhere. If a guest comes ashore at any of the ports we handle and has an exceptional time while ashore, then we’ve done our job and contributed in our small way.”
What makes a shore thing?
What does it take for a place to get the green light as a new port of call? The first factor Carnival Australia’s destination management director Michael Mihajlov cites is its location in relation to other ports. Given the popularity of shorter cruises of four to seven nights, it’s essential to give passengers frequent ports of call. “We look at geographic opportunities,” he says. “The higher the number of ports within the shortest amount of space, or the higher the port density ratio, the better the proposition.”
If location works, the line examines existing infrastructure and landing facilities. “Each of these ports and destinations has its own set of unique challenges,” Mihajlov says.
“Sometimes it might be marine access; we might not have sufficient navigational charts to be able to make the decision to bring a ship into these places. Other times depth of water might be an issue or exposure to wind and swell. There might be a landing infrastructure problem or transportation or road network issues, so it’s all about problem-solving. There are no two (ports or destinations) alike.”
Carnival’s portfolio of cruise brands is so large that it comprises 75 per cent of the Australian cruise industry. Under its umbrella is P&O Cruises Australia, which last year sent Pacific Jewel to Dili in East Timor. It was the first time that capital had hosted a visiting cruise ship. Dili ticked the boxes in relation to location; Mihajlov says it’s in the perfect spot for repositioning cruises travelling between Indonesian destinations such as Lombok, Bali and Komodo National Park and Australia’s north.
Reconnaissance missions to Dili also had to consider activities for independent passengers who didn’t want to do a shore excursion. Were there local markets they could visit, for instance, or taxis that could take them to nearby attractions and experiences? All up, organising the inaugural visit to Dili took two years, but much less than the five years of work the company put into launching its Papua New Guinea destinations.
Sourse: theaustralian.com.au
