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Speaker 1: But a real change of page right now, because we

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Speaker 1: know that almost fourteen thousand tourists are expected to cruise

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Speaker 1: to Darwin in the next month, with a whopping eighteen thousand,

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Speaker 1: seven hundred to follow in the four weeks after that.

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Speaker 1: It's a huge number of tourists heading to the Top

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Speaker 1: End on cruise ships, twenty five of them in fact,

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Speaker 1: up until the well that's up until the end of April.

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Speaker 1: So joining us on the Line to talk more about

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Speaker 1: this is tourism Top Ends, Sam Bennett, Good morning to you,

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Speaker 1: Sam morning, Katie. Lovely to have you on the show. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: good to have you on the show. Sam tell Us,

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is a massive number of tourists. Is

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Speaker 1: it up on last year?

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Speaker 2: It is up on last year, and a lot of

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Speaker 2: it is happening in this part of the season. So

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Speaker 2: sometimes we have a high number of ships coming over

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Speaker 2: the Christmas break, but a lot of them are coming

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Speaker 2: right now for the next nine weeks. We're technically nine

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Speaker 2: weeks until the end of April. Will have you know,

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Speaker 2: thirty thirty three thousand passengers arrived and it's a really

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Speaker 2: good story for our industry. So Cusline International Association has

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Speaker 2: done a report for the twenty three to twenty four

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Speaker 2: season and it was around one hundred and eighty one

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Speaker 2: million dollar spend supporting around five hundred and thirty jobs.

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Speaker 1: So that's good news in our low season, it is,

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Speaker 1: it is wonderful news. Tell us when those when those

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Speaker 1: cruise ship passengers cruise into town, what do they usually

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Speaker 1: get up to? Oh?

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Speaker 2: So, a good example is the ship that we've got

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Speaker 2: coming this weekend. Around five hundred of them are already

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Speaker 2: pre booked, so they'll they'll do things like magnet jumping, crocodiles,

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Speaker 2: Lichfield Parked two wildlife parks. They'll also do the town tours,

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Speaker 2: the oil tunnels, the military news, the aviation Museum RFDS.

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Speaker 2: It really is dependent on how long they're import for

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Speaker 2: as to how far out they'll get.

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Speaker 1: And in terms of the ships that are arriving, are

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Speaker 1: there any that are really massive that we should keep

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Speaker 1: an eye out for, Like what are some of the highlights.

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Speaker 2: I think the biggest ship is the Ovations that's coming

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Speaker 2: that is in April. That is a massive amount of people.

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Speaker 2: I think they're here in port for quite a long time.

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Speaker 2: I don't have the actual dates for that, but you know,

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Speaker 2: I think there's there are there are. There are very

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Speaker 2: high yielding kind of demographic that come off that ship.

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Speaker 2: It also depends on how long they've been at sea.

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Speaker 2: For if they've been at sea for a few days,

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Speaker 2: they're really keen to get off and explore and go

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Speaker 2: and spend some money in our retail, in our city shops,

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Speaker 2: and also obviously within the tourism industry. So I think

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Speaker 2: any ship is a good ship. The other ships that

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Speaker 2: traveling all year around now are the expedition ships, and

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Speaker 2: they stay for longer because they actually board here and

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Speaker 2: disembark here, and so they might actually add a few

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Speaker 2: days day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a good thing, right because then I

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Speaker 1: would imagine that they're out in the community, local businesses

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Speaker 1: are seeing the benefits of those tourists.

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Speaker 2: That's exactly right. You know where that port stop between

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Speaker 2: Canned Darwin and Brooom, that's that whole northern coastline that's

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Speaker 2: really giving people a taste of what the northern part

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Speaker 2: of Australia has on offer.

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Speaker 1: And Sam tell us just how important is that cruise

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Speaker 1: ship tourism. I mean it does seem like I said,

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Speaker 1: they're here in that shoulder sort of season. It does

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Speaker 1: see a massive number of people coming to the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 1: How important is that is that cruise ship tourist.

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Speaker 2: I think it's really important for a number of factors.

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Speaker 2: One that it puts the money into the economy and

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Speaker 2: that money goes around. It supports jobs in a low

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Speaker 2: season when you know, traditionally we used to not keep

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Speaker 2: the casuals on. So it's about job retention. It's about

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Speaker 2: liveability for people that are here that want to stay

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Speaker 2: in Darwin and not move on during the wet seasons.

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Speaker 2: It's also jobs for locals. It keeps them employed in

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Speaker 2: an industry that traditionally runs in peaks and tross So

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Speaker 2: I think it's really important. Also, it just gives a vibe.

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Speaker 2: It gives the industry a real you know, we all

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Speaker 2: get really excited. If you visit at the visitor information

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Speaker 2: center on Tuesday, we had crocodiles out the front. We

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Speaker 2: were talking to all the guests and we want them

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Speaker 2: to have an amazing experience because we actually want them

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Speaker 2: to come back and Tuesdays as their holiday destination next year.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on and spend some extra time here,

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Speaker 1: that'd be a wonderful thing to see. Well, Sam I

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: having a chat to us and letting us know about

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Speaker 1: all those cruise ships. To anybody listening this morning who

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Speaker 1: maybe has a business that's in the CBD, or they're

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Speaker 1: a tourism operator and they don't know when some of

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Speaker 1: those cruise ships are coming to town. Is there a

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Speaker 1: bit of a least up somewhere, or is there somewhere

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Speaker 1: where they're able to find out a bit more detail. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, they can go to the port website and it

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Speaker 2: will give you the timings of the ships, the amount

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Speaker 2: of passengers they have, the amount of crew they have.

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Speaker 2: But we're also happy to share that information through the

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Speaker 2: Visitors Information Center. Our team are right across that. We

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Speaker 2: run the volunteer service, so we're there to greet them

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Speaker 2: as they come off the ship, and we would love

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Speaker 2: to see more of industry get involved with that sector.

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Speaker 1: Wonderful stuff. Sam, thank you so much for your time

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Speaker 1: this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie, thank you