Tourism managers have touted
the Top End as an ideal hub for
cruises to Asia.
TONY Clementson, General Manager of
Tourism Top End, has called for cruise lines to
base a ship in Darwin as a potential home-port
for “more exotic” cruising from northern
Australia.
“In my opinion, Australia to Asia is the next
obvious emerging cruise route,” he told Cruise
Weekly in a telephone interview.
“If a ship was based in Darwin, it could do
seven-day sailings to Asia and people could fly
back from Singapore, Indonesia or Manila.”
Darwin could also be used as an embarkation
or disembarkation point for shorter sectors of
Australian circumnavigations “because not
everyone wants to cruise for 17 days”, he said.
“It would suit time-poor people to end or
begin here, so they could do an east coast or
west coast cruise without going all the way
around the country.”
Clementson said he has had informal
discussions with the management of Royal
Caribbean, and Tourism NT was “spreading the
message of Darwin” at the upcoming Seatrade
cruise conference in Miami.
Celebrity Cruises is also planning a
Singapore-Sydney repositioning cruise via
Darwin in November, “so it’s already
happening in a way,” Clementson said.
“But my vision is to see Darwin evolve into a
small home-port for people who want to travel
to exotic destinations, both for outbound
Australian passengers and inbound passengers
coming here from Europe or the US.”
The tropical city, which opened a new cruise
terminal in 2008, has welcomed 13 ships to its
shores so far this year, including maiden calls
by the Queen Mary 2, Celebrity Century and
Zaandam, as well as regular visitors such as
Diamond Princess and Rhapsody of the Seas.
More than 50 vessels are scheduled to visit in
2012.
“Many passengers have enjoyed the city of
Darwin and have taken up trips down the track
to Litchfield National Park and attractions like
the jumping crocodiles on the Adelaide River,
and a few adventure-seekers have chartered
light aircraft to visit Kakadu,” Clementson said.
“We also have warm climatic conditions that
are conducive to cruising and being out on
deck, so maybe it is time for our great cruise
line leaders to consider Darwin as the
Caribbean of the north [of Australia].”
