**In 2015, New York City welcomed over 200 cruise ships resulting in an economic impact in the nine figure range, said Maria Torres-Springer, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “In total we saw over one million passengers visit our cruise terminals in 2015,” she said, adding New York was a top five port in the country.
**The 2016 Cruise Canada New England Symposium officially opened on Tuesday night with a reception at the trendy Gallow Green on 27th Street on the West Side of Manhattan. It is the 18th annual edition of the event.
**The traditional panels are long gone, with a workshop format taking place for the 2016 event, which runs over the course of three days. Cruise Canada New England board members told Cruise Industry News that the new format was a result of feedback following the Bar Harbor event in 2015.
**The workshop format sees the attendance pool split up into groups, each assigned a topic to work through a designated table.
**Not seen: top leadership from CLIA, whom have traditionally attended the event.
**Free WiFi: New York Economic Development Corporation has not only provided WiFi in the cruise terminal, but has gone out of its way to tell attendees the username and password.
**Bar Harbor is undertaking an economic impact survey in regards to cruise passenger spending for 2016.