As all ports are set to welcome cruise ships, maritime tourism businesses are thrilled

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

In Canadian waters, for the first time in two years, a huge cruise ship has docked. On Saturday, over 1,200 passengers arrived in Victoria, B.C. marking the much awaited return of the cruise ships.

To make the big return successful, the Holland America ship wasn’t supposed to be the first one. Princess Cruises called off the arrival of the Caribbean Princess, which at first was scheduled to arrive on Wednesday.

On the east coast of Canada, it’s a definite sign of the return of cruise ships to Maritime ports.

To quote Lane Farguson, the director of communications and marketing at the Port of Halifax, “There’s a massive rehiring effort underway and turning on the machines and equipment to come back to life like we want them to, so there’s a lot of work, but there is excitement.”

On April 26th, the first two ships are scheduled to arrive in Halifax. To date, for that port, 151 cruise calls are scheduled, about 85 per cent of the arrivals before COVID-19.

To quote Farguson, “For us, we’re restarting the industry in a fairly strong position. It’s going to take a couple of years of rebuilding to get back to where we were, but at least we’re in a good position to restart.”

On vessels, all passengers and crew members docking in Canada are needed to be vaccinated and the federal government has firm safety rules for cruise lines.

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