NORWEGIAN Cruise Line would love to bring more ships to Aussie waters, but is restricted by capacity, particularly in Sydney, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings SVP Steve Odell told TD.
“We would bring more capacity to Australia, no question, but the infrastructure issue is the main problem,” Odell said.
“We’d ideally like to bring a big ship like Joy, but with the big ships there’s no space [for them]”.
Odell told TD the company would “absolutely bring more ships” if there was a berthing solution in Sydney.
“It has to be in Sydney, because we’re internationally-minded, and there’s no more room in the inn to bring big new ships.
“We’ve accepted that a solution is probably five years away at least and we just have to put our resources elsewhere in the meantime,” Odell said.
Next year the cruise line is homeporting Norwegian Spirit in Asia-Pacific waters year-round, but Odell confirmed it would not visit Australia due to not being able to secure space in Sydney.
Odell assured that Norwegian Jewel would remain in Australia during the summer season, but he ruled out homeporting her year-round in local waters for the moment.
“Between Apr and Oct we can have a ship in Alaska or Europe earning twice as much,” he said.
“If you ask a travel agent if in Aug they’d rather sell a cruise out of Sydney for around $100 a day or a cruise out of Europe including flights, travel insurance, accommodation, car hire and a seven-night cruise, I know which they’d prefer,” added NCL VP Sales Australia and New Zealand Nicole Costantin.
“Fly-cruise are more lucrative travellers.”
Source: traveldaily