For the coming season, Hobart and Burnie have 39 and 15 cruise vessels booked respectively, while Port Arthur is also expecting a busy season with 11 cruise vessels booked, making it a banner year for Tasmania’s trio of ports.

“It’s a convenient geographic location allowing for an additional cruise ship call for voyages between Australia and New Zealand,” said Craig Heron, COO, Tasmanian Ports Corporation.

A number of new vessels will visit Tasmania this season including L’Austral, while Carnival is bringing the Legend to join the Spirit, and maiden visits are booked for the Funchal and Insignia as well.

After a big-dollar upgrade at Hobart a few years ago, the port has added a revised coach parking system to better support shore-ex operations.

“The revised echelon traffic arrangements capable of housing up to 15 coaches concurrently, were developed in collaboration with cruise lines, shore excursion and local coach companies,” noted Heron.

Now on the table is a further upgrade in Hobart to fit even bigger ships via a bollard change.

“Additionally, Tasports is also exploring the upgrade of the fender system at the Macquarie No. 2/3 berth to provide higher capacity fenders at the berth,” Heron said.     

The destination has also worked hard on meet and greets pierside, with volunteers organized by the city council, and even regularly sees local mayors coming out to meet the ships.