To help the shire’s tourism sector, cruise ship visits need to be regular, reliable and have easy access to shore, Batemans Bay Chamber of Commerce president David McLaughlin says.
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“The boat the other day had 90 passengers, maybe 80 odd crew,” he said.
“If we had a pier, the crew would also come to shore, they get food, buy personal items. That’s a really significant factor for any cruise ship.
“Small ships mean small tenders (ship-to-shore transport) and small tenders mean they’re highly subject to weather. If you're going to have small ships with small tenders you’re going to have more frequent cancellations, and it’s going to be challenging to develop tourism products.”
Mr McLaughlin said regular cruise ship visits would be a “catalyst” for the region.
“It’s all about destination development,” he said.
“We have a lot of potential, but not a lot of developed tourism products.
“(The ACT) has four of the top 30 attractions in Australia, but people can’t get to those from the Sydney, Wollongong or Eden cruise ship terminals.
“If we can get stable cruise ship visitation, that will be a catalyst like nothing else to develop great tourism products.”
He said that any concerns about cruise ships bringing illness or contaminating the natural environment were unfounded.
“They have border security and quarantine – there’s a lot of things that we need to be concerned about when large numbers of people are coming into different ports, but it’s all regulated,” he said.
