International Cruise ship delegation visits Geraldton

Cruise ship executives get up close and personal with Rock Lobsters at the Fisherman’s Co-op Crayfish Factory.

Fourteen executives from cruise lines and their ground handlers visited Geraldton last recently as part of the WA Cruise Exchange, which was sponsored by Tourism WA.

The Cruise ship delegates were in Geraldton on a familiarisation tour to see for themselves what the City region has to offer its passengers.

City of Greater Geraldton Mayor, Ian Carpenter said the Cruise ship delegates had a busy day taking in all the sights, sounds and tastes of the area as many of them had never been to Geraldton before.

“The delegates had an action packed day with tours of the Greenough settlement, the Fisherman’s Co-op Crayfish (Lobster) Factory, Batavia Coast Maritime Institute, the HMAS Sydney II Memorial and the Mid West Port Authority.”

The delegates ended their day with a Sundowner at the Geraldton Visitor Centre where they had a chance to meet and mingle with key cruise ship suppliers and tour providers. They later finished their visit to Geraldton with a wonderful lobster dinner at one of Geraldton’s great restaurants.

“The delegates were greatly impressed by the City and the variety of facilities and tours their passengers could take,” said Mayor Carpenter.

“There are currently 18 cruise ships booked to visit Geraldton in 2015/16 carrying almost 30,000 passengers.  We hope that the hard work put into making their day in Geraldton as memorable as possible will result in an increase in cruise ship stopovers next year.”

Tourism WA’s Executive Director Infrastructure and Investment Derryn Belford said Geraldton had set the benchmark in welcoming cruise ship passengers thanks to its fantastic ‘Meet and Greet’ volunteers.

“Geraldton is highly regarded as a port destination and I would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of the City of Greater Geraldton, the Geraldton Port Authority, the community and volunteers to ensure cruise passengers have a very memorable visit to Geraldton,” Ms Belford said.

“Tourism WA together with the WA Cruise Committee and industry is committed to growing cruise shipping in the State and Geraldton has an important role in helping us achieve this.”

The next cruise ship to Visit Geraldton will be the Dawn Princess scheduled to arrive on Friday 21 August 2015 on its way from Fremantle to Lombok stopping at Broome, the Kimberly Coast, Darwin, Port Douglas, Brisbane, ending its journey in Sydney.