Issues & Trends – October 2011
Advocacy role for ICCA becomes more urgent
A December meeting of the International Cruise Council of Australia (ICCA) will consider a proposal to widen the council’s role so it can act as an industry spokesperson on issues such as infrastructure.
The move was foreshadowed earlier this year (travelBulletin, April) and was confirmed earlier this month by ICCA chairman Gavin Smith.
Smith, the Australian managing director of Royal Caribbean Cruises, was speaking at a Sydney press conference alongside Royal Caribbean International’s Miami-based president and chief executive Adam Goldstein.
During Goldstein’s visit to Sydney, he and Smith met with key members of the NSW Government to put forward their views on Sydney Harbour infra-structure development.
Smith said there was a need for the cruise industry to present a unified voice to governments and the public on a range of issues because individual companies were perceived to be talking on behalf of their shareholders.
However, he said the new role proposed for ICCA would stop short of lobbying. He also stressed that ICCA was only considering it after putting existing core activities such as agent training on a sound footing.
Smith said the addition of a spokes-person role to ICCA activities won’t be relevant to all members and it will be funded only by those who wish to participate.
However it is supported by the country’s largest cruise company, Carnival Australia, whose managing director Ann Sherry has until now been a virtual “one woman band” in lobbying federal, state and regional governments on behalf of the cruise industry.
Goldstein said that in the US he had been personally involved in ensuring Royal Caribbean worked co-operatively with Carnival Corporation to help build the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) into a credible cruise industry advocate.
In Australia the cruise industry “has now reached a scale where there is a complexity and a range of issues” that call for a unified industry approach, he said.
Following “amicable” discussions with the NSW Government, Goldstein declared himself “confident that the infrastructure will be in place at the Overseas Passenger Terminal” to satisfactorily handle the passengers Royal Caribbean will bring to Australia this summer season and in 2012/13.
By then, the company will have hugely increased its capacity in Australian waters with ships including Voyager of the Seas, the largest passenger vessel ever to be based here.
However, he added that the NSW Government is still wrestling with longer term issues.
Goldstein lavished praise on the Singapore Government for its decisive action in committing to a major cruise terminal but was insistent that he was not drawing an unfavourable comparison with the recently elected NSW Government which is still working its way through the issues.
At the same time, however, he urged the NSW Government to play a leadership role in the development of an Australian cruise industry.
“Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and other cities will all benefit if Sydney is a robust (cruise) hub.”