A hitherto unknown patch of the North Pacific Ocean could
well begin to feature more frequently in cruise itineraries if the
newly formed Micronesian Cruise Association (MCA) has their way.
Launched twelve months ago, the MCA have been busy
exhibiting the region at trade and tourism conferences and
gaining some success for the sprawling array of tiny island
nations and states. Micronesia is a term applied to describe that
region of the Pacific above Melanesia (PNG, New Caledonia) and
to the northwest of Polynesia (Hawaii, NZ) and comprises five
distinct political regions: the ‘hub’ of Guam (a US territory), the
Marianas to the north, and Palau, the Federated States of
Micronesia (FSM) and the Marshall Islands broadly across the
south.
Cruise ships already visit the region on an ad hoc basis with
Cunard, Princess, Hapag-Lloyd and Japanese lines making
around six visits annually. Guam, with its US military grade
infrastructure hosted over 4,000 pax and crew from QM2 in 2012
but is realistically more suited to Sun, Sea and Pacific Princesses
scheduled to arrive this year.
“The challenges for us are that we are in the early stage of
development, and there is limited local cruise knowhow at this
time,” said Gerry Perez, a Guamanian on the current PATA board,
“We must work together to streamline any current entry barriers,
and build incentives for more frequent visits from cruise ships.”
One step forward is the introduction of the Star Alliance
Micronesia Airpass, spearheaded by the now dominant airline in
the region, United, which absorbed the previous Continental
routes in the much talked about merger this week. United
Airlines flies weekly to Guam from Cairns year-round, and
extends the service to bi-weekly in peak periods, with regular
connections to the smaller islands.
While the move to attract more frequent visits by the big lines
may be years away at this time, Micronesia is perfectly poised to
accept low impact visits by vessels from the world’s growing
fleet of adventure and expedition vessels. Hapag-Lloyd’s fleet of
luxury expedition vessels are regular guests and in November
this year, our own Orion Expeditions will conduct their first
Micronesian odyssey, beginning in Rabaul and wrapping up in
Guam. Prior to this, the now defunct US small ship line, Cruise
West, regularly visited Micronesia on their popular Pacific
voyages.
To date, much of the tourism throughout Micronesia has
hinged on their renowned diving locations and WWII historic
sites like Peleiu. The tiny city of Koror comes alive daily with its
buzzing fleet of dive boats heading out in all directions to any of
the scores of mapped locations within easy reach. One of the
premier operators, Fish ‘n’ Fins, even offers a superb liveaboard
option with itineraries of a week or more on their Australian-built
vessel, the 16-passenger Ocean Hunter III. Catering mainly to
divers, the trip also includes cultural visits, land tours, hiking and
kayaking. Warships wrecks, manta rays, sharks and vivid coral
arrays feature prominently for keen divers of all levels.
For more information on Micronesia, visit
www.magnificentmicronesia.com.
