Mrs FINOCCHIARO - 2014-10-23
The cruise ship industry is very important to our local tourism industry. Many Palmerston residents run tourism businesses and businesses that benefit from the injection of cruise ship tourists. Can you please inform the House about the start of the cruise ship season today and how local tourism operators and businesses will benefit from what will be a big season?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is great to speak about the cruise ship industry. I thank the member for her question. The opposition probably will not like it; they do not like gardening competitions, fashion week, the Tiwis, Virgin being announced or the Masters Games. They do not like much at all. God help us, they will not like the start of the cruise ship season.
It is a welcome announcement. It is fantastic the cruise ship season is kicking off, a season and industry worth some $54m to our economy in the last financial year. It was great to see the Sun Princess arrive this morning. She is out there in all her glory, the first major cruise ship to arrive in Darwin this season. The Sun Princess has about 2000 passengers on board and some 700 crew, many of who will disembark today and enjoy some of the pre-booked tours of the Top End. The arrival of the Sun Princess signals the start of what is expected to be another bumper cruise ship season in the Top End, and it sets up another exciting 12 months.
The first week of March, which incidentally coincides with the other great announcement today of Virgin’s arrival back into the Centre, will be Darwin’s busiest cruise week season, with record passenger numbers and six cruise ships scheduled over the first five consecutive days, seeing 11 000 passengers in total just for March. The week will see four of the largest cruise ships sail into Australian waters, including the Queen Mary 2 and the Celebrity Solstice on 5 March. Current bookings for the coming season indicate that we will be greeting more than 40 000 cruise ship passengers into Darwin this Wet Season. It is huge, worth about $54m to the Northern Territory economy.
A major highlight next year will also be the Cruise Down Under conference which Darwin won the right to host, beating rival cities; a great coup for the Top End. We will have all our heavyweights here talking about the cruise industry from 2 to 4 September 2015. It is a golden opportunity to promote the Northern Territory and the Top End as a premier cruise destination.
Today, some of the trainee tour guides who completed the government’s free tour guide training workshop in August will ride along with some of the day tours with passengers from the Sun Princess, providing them with the next step to securing seasonal work in the industry. This is a great government initiative that has been taken up by a number of people, and they get their first crack at it today.
The Country Liberals government is fighting very hard for the tourism industry. We have set a 2020 plan to return the tourism industry to growth; that is a $2.2bn visitor economy by the year 2020. We have made some positive gains, there is a lot more to do, but unlike the Labor Party, the Northern Territory government is committed to the tourism industry.
We have invested an additional $16m in appropriation in the last two years, and we will continue to do so.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, it is great to speak about the cruise ship industry. I thank the member for her question. The opposition probably will not like it; they do not like gardening competitions, fashion week, the Tiwis, Virgin being announced or the Masters Games. They do not like much at all. God help us, they will not like the start of the cruise ship season.
It is a welcome announcement. It is fantastic the cruise ship season is kicking off, a season and industry worth some $54m to our economy in the last financial year. It was great to see the Sun Princess arrive this morning. She is out there in all her glory, the first major cruise ship to arrive in Darwin this season. The Sun Princess has about 2000 passengers on board and some 700 crew, many of who will disembark today and enjoy some of the pre-booked tours of the Top End. The arrival of the Sun Princess signals the start of what is expected to be another bumper cruise ship season in the Top End, and it sets up another exciting 12 months.
The first week of March, which incidentally coincides with the other great announcement today of Virgin’s arrival back into the Centre, will be Darwin’s busiest cruise week season, with record passenger numbers and six cruise ships scheduled over the first five consecutive days, seeing 11 000 passengers in total just for March. The week will see four of the largest cruise ships sail into Australian waters, including the Queen Mary 2 and the Celebrity Solstice on 5 March. Current bookings for the coming season indicate that we will be greeting more than 40 000 cruise ship passengers into Darwin this Wet Season. It is huge, worth about $54m to the Northern Territory economy.
A major highlight next year will also be the Cruise Down Under conference which Darwin won the right to host, beating rival cities; a great coup for the Top End. We will have all our heavyweights here talking about the cruise industry from 2 to 4 September 2015. It is a golden opportunity to promote the Northern Territory and the Top End as a premier cruise destination.
Today, some of the trainee tour guides who completed the government’s free tour guide training workshop in August will ride along with some of the day tours with passengers from the Sun Princess, providing them with the next step to securing seasonal work in the industry. This is a great government initiative that has been taken up by a number of people, and they get their first crack at it today.
The Country Liberals government is fighting very hard for the tourism industry. We have set a 2020 plan to return the tourism industry to growth; that is a $2.2bn visitor economy by the year 2020. We have made some positive gains, there is a lot more to do, but unlike the Labor Party, the Northern Territory government is committed to the tourism industry.
We have invested an additional $16m in appropriation in the last two years, and we will continue to do so.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016