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Speaker 1: Now it sounds us out some pretty good us with

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Speaker 1: this report showing that the cruise sector is really surging ahead.

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Speaker 1: Can you break down some of the figures for us

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Speaker 1: from the report?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, So it's a report that's put out by

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Speaker 2: Cruise Line International and the Australian Cruise Association, so two

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Speaker 2: pre eminent organizations who monitor this industry, and it showed

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Speaker 2: that for last year, our crew season, we had one

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Speaker 2: hundred and eighty one million dollars brought into the territory

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Speaker 2: through that and that's a really big increase. The year

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Speaker 2: previous it was sixty five million, So just phenomenal growth

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Speaker 2: and that money in the pockets of every single tourism

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Speaker 2: business and hospitality business. Who's an interesting crew?

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Speaker 1: What do you reckon change? Like, I know we had

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Speaker 1: to sort of bounce back after COVID, but what do

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Speaker 1: you reckon change? Do we have a bit more of

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Speaker 1: a focus on trying to get some of those ships

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Speaker 1: to here to Darwin.

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Speaker 2: There's been several things I guess that's happened, Katie. So one,

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Speaker 2: there's been extra ordinary interest in the expedition cruise ships.

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Speaker 2: So they're the slightly smaller cruise ships over up to

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Speaker 2: a couple of one hundred people. They've really started becoming

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Speaker 2: increasingly interested, particularly in the Kimberly Coast, so we had

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Speaker 2: a lot more of those ships this year. And then

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Speaker 2: also what's happened is cruise globally has really taken off

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Speaker 2: post pandemic. It virtually stopped for some time and we

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Speaker 2: had no ships into territory for about two years, and

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Speaker 2: the interest in more exotic I guess places like the

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Speaker 2: northern part of Australia has really taken off globally, So

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Speaker 2: we've got many more ships visiting than we ever had before.

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Speaker 1: It is good. It is such good news. And I

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Speaker 1: know that quite often, you know when they do then

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Speaker 1: come into port, you know, people get off, they might

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Speaker 1: do a day tour or they walk around the city

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Speaker 1: and they sort of experience a bit of what the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory's got on offer.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, So we've got a couple of really large ships

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Speaker 2: coming in this weekend actually, so Queen Elizabeth will be

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Speaker 2: in on Saturday. She's got just under nineteen hundred passengers

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Speaker 2: and four hundred and thirty of those have already booked

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Speaker 2: a pre tour before they hop off the ship, so

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Speaker 2: the rest will be looking for things to do when

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Speaker 2: they're here. But they're going down to Litchfield, out to

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Speaker 2: the Territory Wildlife Park, some of our attractions around town,

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Speaker 2: like the aviation and military museums, doing tours of the city.

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Speaker 2: Out in the jet skis doing harbor cruisers. So you know,

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Speaker 2: there's a real mix of pre booked expeditions that they're

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Speaker 2: already on.

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Speaker 1: That's great. So two ships this weekend, so the Queen

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth and what was the other one?

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Speaker 2: So the other one coming in on Sunday Celebrity Solstice,

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Speaker 2: and she's slightly larger, so she will have two thousand,

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Speaker 2: eight hundred passengers wow, and over another thousand crew on her.

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Speaker 2: So she's certainly a really big ship coming in from

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Speaker 2: Cans en route to Barley.

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Speaker 1: Oh that sounds like a part ship just about their valerie.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it certainly does.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it'll be fun. How many like, how

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Speaker 1: many ships have we had visits, you know over the

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Speaker 1: last season. So over the.

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Speaker 2: Last season across the territory we had one hundred and

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Speaker 2: thirty one cruise ship visits and over one hundred of

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Speaker 2: those into Darwin itself. We're expecting an even bigger cruise

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Speaker 2: ship season this year it started slightly earlier with the

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Speaker 2: big ships and just into Darwin already have one hundred

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Speaker 2: and twenty seven cruise ship visits scheduled in so we

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Speaker 2: might pick up a couple more during the year and

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Speaker 2: there'll be extras across the Northern coastline as well.

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Speaker 1: And as I understand it, over the last season as

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Speaker 1: well or this season, we've had a number of maiden calls,

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Speaker 1: haven't we so first time that they've come to Darwin.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. I think last year was around eleven maiden visits

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Speaker 2: and that's really greater. It just shows the increased interest

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Speaker 2: in Northern Australia. The team does a huge amount of

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Speaker 2: work in contacting all of the cruise lines and making

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Speaker 2: sure they know of where we are and what we

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Speaker 2: can offer and the wonderful experiences that their guests can

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Speaker 2: have when they come here, and it's really paying dividends

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Speaker 2: for us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I was going to ask, I mean, how big

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Speaker 1: a difference do you reckon it is making in terms

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Speaker 1: of our tourism numbers and you know, sort of getting

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Speaker 1: us out there a little bit in a bit of

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Speaker 1: a different way.

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Speaker 2: I think it makes a really huge difference. One of

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Speaker 2: the really great things about cruise ships is they come

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Speaker 2: here in the quiet part of the year, sort usually

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Speaker 2: between November and March, and that's when our traditional drive market,

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Speaker 2: tourists and others are a little bit more quiet. So

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Speaker 2: they provide a really welcome injection of funds to all

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Speaker 2: of our hospitality and tourism businesses when otherwise there's not

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Speaker 2: much else going on. So they're so important.

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Speaker 1: And valerie in terms of the report and what it's

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Speaker 1: sort of shown about the Northern Territory and Darwin. How

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Speaker 1: do we compare nationally to some of the other you know,

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Speaker 1: larger capital cities and their ports and the type of

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Speaker 1: cruise numbers that they're experiencing. I know it's sort of

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Speaker 1: a per capita thing, but are we having a bit

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Speaker 1: more of a surge than other locations.

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Speaker 2: To some degree, No, it's all of Australia who's benefiting

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Speaker 2: from this real resurgence. So across Australia there was a

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Speaker 2: fifty percent increase in economic output over the last year

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Speaker 2: and the industry is worth eight point four billion dollars

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Speaker 2: to Australia, so you know, it's a really big important

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Speaker 2: industry nationally. Our expenditure growth was actually slightly above the

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Speaker 2: national average. And the reason for that is, you know,

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Speaker 2: a lot of the ships when they're coming down to Australia,

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Speaker 2: Darwin's their first or last port of entry. So we

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Speaker 2: certainly hit I guess, above our weight in terms of

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Speaker 2: what you would expect coming here. But I think that's

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Speaker 2: also reflective not just a bad geography, but the wonderful

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Speaker 2: experiences we have to offer. You know, Kakadu and Michfield,

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Speaker 2: they're really something that international tourists in particularly keen on scene.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I reckon it's great and it does. It

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Speaker 1: feels like there's been you know, a bit of a

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Speaker 1: like you'd touched on, a real resurgence in people wanting

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Speaker 1: to go on those those cruise ships. And I know

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Speaker 1: him like in years gone by, people used to see

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Speaker 1: it as something that maybe more senior tourists would do,

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Speaker 1: but it seems to be something that everybody's getting right into.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I think there's such a variety of ships,

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Speaker 2: so some are certainly cater to different sorts of classes

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Speaker 2: I guess of traveler. But just in my friend groups,

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Speaker 2: you know, I know of groups of women getting together

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Speaker 2: and having a joint party on a boat for someone's birthday.

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Speaker 2: So it's a great thing.

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Speaker 1: Really.

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Speaker 2: You can travel around, you don't have to unpack and

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Speaker 2: pre pack, someone cooks you every night. It kind of.

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Speaker 1: Exactly living the dream. Oh Valerie, lovely to speak with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. I really appreciate your time and good

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Speaker 1: to hear that those numbers are looking really strong.

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Speaker 2: Great thanks for your time, Katie.

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Speaker 1: Thank you