Issues & Trends – September 2011
RCC into lobbying limelight with call for re-deployment of White Bay $60 million
ROYAL Caribbean Cruises (RCC) has now publicly joined cruise industry lobbying of government over cruise facilities at Australia’s major cruise ship gateway, Sydney Harbour.
Hitherto, the lobbying effort has been carried almost solely by outspoken Carnival Australia boss Ann Sherry. But this month RCC’s Australian managing director Gavin Smith weighed in with a call to divert funding allocated to White Bay to a solution east of the harbour bridge.
The call, which came in an address to the Cruise Down Under (CDU) conference in Newcastle, is driven by the fact that an increasing number of the large liners visiting Australia are unable to pass under the Sydney harbour bridge.
Smith’s speech closely followed last month’s visit to Australia by Dan Hanrahan, Miami-based president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises, the RCC-owned line which is one of those planning to bring massively increased cruise capacity to Australia in coming years.
While here, Hanrahan met with government officials and signalled the company’s lobbying efforts would become more high-profile, albeit avoiding a confrontational approach.
“It is incumbent on us (the cruise industry) to do a better job telling our story,” he said.
Smith told his CDU audience the Australian cruise market is growing so quickly that Sydney’s port facilities could reach capacity during the summer cruise season of 2013/14 and a solution to accommodate large cruise ships east of the Harbour Bridge is urgently needed.
Since the decision was made to build a $60 million cruise facility at White Bay by the previous NSW Government in late 2009, Smith said his company alone is deploying an additional three superliners to Sydney.
“We have a good situation that needs attention before becoming a problem,” he said.
“It was difficult to predict two years ago that market conditions, along with our commitment to the Australian cruise market, would make it possible for us to have one of the world’s largest cruise ships (Voyager of the Seas) based in Australia.
“During the 2012/13 season we will carry four times the number of guests that we did last summer – an increase of more than 100,000.
“Add to that the deployments from competing cruise line companies that can only use facilities east of the Bridge – we need to consider the near future,” he said.
He argued that White Bay funding would be better used building a facility that accommodates the needs of all cruise ship sizes.
“Our view is $60 million is a considerable amount of money to invest in a permanent terminal west of the Harbour Bridge that most ships calling into Sydney in the future won’t be able to use,” said Smith.
MEANWHILE Carnival Australia, welcoming the terms of reference for the Federal Government’s review of shared use of the Garden Island naval base, reiterated its support for a three-berth solution.
This would involve a cruise facility west of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and two berths in the eastern harbour to accommodate the increasing number of cruise ships that are too big to pass under the bridge.
“Carnival Australia believes the upgrading of the Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay, for which the NSW Government recently called for expressions of interest, and shared use of Garden Island with the Navy, is the best solution east of the bridge,” a statement said.