Cruise ships return as international tourism rebuilds

Tess BennettWork & Careers reporter

Apr 18, 2022 – 5.31pm

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The first cruise ship to enter Sydney Harbour in more than two years docked at Circular Quay on Monday, as the tourism sector works to rebuild Australia’s international tourism market back to pre-pandemic levels.

The arrival of the P&O ship, flanked by tug boats spraying water cannon, marked the end of the federal government’s rolling ban on foreign cruise liners that was put in place in March 2020 to stop COVID-19 being imported into Australia.

P&O Pacific Explorer arrives in Sydney Harbour after a two-year ban on cruising. Nick Moir

NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said the return of cruise ships would “help to turbocharge the recovery of the state’s visitor economy”.

The Pacific Explorer made the voyage to Sydney from Cyprus where it has been anchored and will depart on its first trip with passengers on May 31, when it sails to Brisbane.

While domestic travel showed a strong recovery over the Easter long weekend, restarting Australia’s international tourism market is still a work in progress.Queensland will launch three tourism campaigns targeting New Zealand holidaymakers, who were the state’s second-largest market for international arrivals.

Despite quarantine-free travel resuming between the two countries, the number of New Zealand visitors to Queensland is down close to 90 per cent, Queensland Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said.

“For a $600 million market, pre-pandemic, you can see the impact that it’s having. But that’s the one [market] that we do think can bounce back really, really strongly.”

Rachel Crowley from Brisbane Airport Corporation said 5000 international passengers were arriving daily at Brisbane airport, down from around 17,000 to 20,000 pre-pandemic.

“It will likely take some years to build back to those sorts of numbers,” Ms Crowley said.

In comparison, 58,000 domestic passengers passed through Brisbane airport on Monday.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Geschwind said it was important to encourage tourists from New Zealand back to Australia, while travellers were still wary of travelling too far from home.

“Australia’s good health record and safe environment is a really good proposition for Kiwis, and I think that will reflect a very strong market over the next few months, hopefully years, with the airlines gearing up for strong traffic,” Mr Geschwind said.

“It’s a huge boost that marketing campaigns are going into New Zealand to remind our friends across the ditch what we have to offer.”

Mr Geschwind said the Easter long weekend had delivered a confidence boost to Queensland’s tourism operators following two years of border closures followed by a rocky reopening over Christmas as the omicron wave peaked in the state.

Mr Hinchliffe said the influx of domestic travellers had lifted occupancy rates close to full capacity on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and in Central Queensland over the Easter period.

Destinations that had a strong international focus, like tropical North Queensland, “haven’t had the same experience, but they’ve still done pretty well”, with occupancy rates of 85 per cent in Port Douglas.

Ms Crowley said stimulating consumer demand would help Brisbane Airport in its efforts to encourage more airlines to restart their routes into Queensland.

“It’s a very, very competitive and complex aviation industry globally right now. Every destination, every market in the world is in a way fighting for those carriers to come back,” Ms Crowley said.

“We’ve really got to work really hard – much like this campaign – to stimulate that demand so airlines feel confident to bring these services back.”