P&O Australia’s Pacific Encounter arrived in Brisbane late last week and is expected to help revive the Queensland cruise market, rebuild Australia’s $5 billion cruise industry, and reopen cruising to the South Pacific and Papua New Guinea, according to P&O Australia.
The Pacific Encounter was claimed for Queensland by a group of tourism-connected business owners, including Darren Webster, coach operator Kangaroo Buslines, Dan Russell, head of the specialist cruise travel agency Clean Cruising, and Nikki Giumelli, owner of the Bad Fishy Jetboat adventure in Cairns, among others, upon its arrival at the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal last week.
“It is fantastic to know that Queensland again has its own P&O ship to carry on a long tradition of having a ship based year round in Brisbane including the much-loved Pacific Dawn that did more than 500 transits of the Brisbane River,” said Marguerite Fitzgerald, president, Carnival Australia and P&O Cruises Australia.
Fitzgerald emphasized the importance of Queensland in the rebuilding of cruise tourism in Australia and the international region.
“Queensland has already done so much to support the restart of cruising with the phased return of domestic itineraries but it can now also be the springboard for the reopening of cruising in our region. Brisbane has always been a great turnaround port for cruises to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea and will be again before too long as P&O’s horizons grow,” she added.
The Pacific Encounter, according to the president of P&O Cruises, will be making 24 cruises from Brisbane between now and the end of the year on a variety of itineraries in Queensland and the Pacific, and another 54 cruises in 2023.
“As a family owned and operated business in Cairns, the cruise market provides a huge boost for our business, with arrivals we can plan for and guests who love our jet boating product. We are thrilled to be hosting cruise guests again and wowing them on the stunning Cairns Trinity Inlet!,” commented Nikki Giumelli, Bad Fishy Jetboat Cairns.
