| Silversea to give Sydney the flick?

Italian-owned Silversea Cruises
says it may be forced to bypass
Sydney altogether for its future
cruises because of lack of berths
and the high cost of new port fees.
“SYDNEY has become my most expensive
port in the world to turn around in – compared
to a lot of European cities, it’s double,” said
Michael Paulus, director Strategic Itinerary
Planning & Scheduling for Silversea in an
exclusive interview with CW at the Seatrade
Hong Kong Cruise Forum in Kowloon yesterday.
He said that one of his company’s ships,
Silver Whisper couldn’t get dock space in
Sydney for one of its cruises next year, and will
instead go to Melbourne.
Silver Whisper is one of four purpose-built ships
in the Silversea fleet, smaller, intimate vessels
for the ultra-luxury market and the economic
loss to Sydney will be high, says the company.
Paulus said “Our guests tend to be very
wealthy”.
“They buy pre/post packages, spend up to $500
per day on a hotel room, not to mention the
dinners, the expensive jewellery and shopping.
“When you look at the economic power of a
small luxury ship like ours, our guests might
spend more per person per day than those say,
on a larger ship.
“It’s not just us, take my competitors,
Regent, Oceania, Crystal, we all have the same
issues as small, independent operators,
because there’s such a limited number of
berths in Sydney and when you’ve got P&O
and the more regimented operators taking up
dock space, it’s a challenge for us to berth in
Sydney,” he added.
John Tercek, vice president Commercial
Development for Royal Caribbean Cruises agrees.
“It’s a real problem getting ships into Sydney
and its become a big issue for our industry in
terms of planning and it really restricts our
growth,” he said.
“We see that Australia is an important and
growing market, but you have to be able to
turn the ships,” Tercek added.
But Silversea’s Paulus says the biggest issue
he has with Sydney is the high cost of
operation and being penalised by port
authorities for being a small ship.
“Right now, the new pier fees and head taxes
we are charged, Sydney has become an
expensive port for us to use”.
Asked if the line might drop Sydney altogether
one day, Paulus replied, “possibly, yes”.
“Even though Silver Whisper has only 382
pax, I’m being penalised because I have to pay
the minimum fee they charge that’s based on a
twelve-hundred pax ship, so regardless of being
a small operator, I’m not paying a premium on
a per-berth basis to be in Sydney,” he adds.
“It’s still a world-class destination, people
want to go there, but I have to make sure I’m
selling those cruises to make it worthwhile to
be there,” he added.
Michael Paulus is pictured below (left) with
John Tercek.