The 10-year Cruise Development Plan was a recommendation of the NSW Government’s Visitor Economy Industry Action Plan (VEIAP). Today’s announcement comes after the 2013 Cruise Industry Source Market Report, released by the Cruise Lines International Association Australasia in Sydney last week, revealed that the Australian cruise industry is now ranked number one in the world for market growth and penetration.

“The Cruise Development Plan will help NSW plan for the forecast growth in cruise ship calls and passengers numbers and to capitalise on opportunities to grow our State’s overnight visitor expenditure,” Mr Stoner said.

“In 2013-14 Sydney welcomed a record 261 cruise ships and in 2014-15 an additional 32 are booked to call into our Harbour City, including maiden calls from Celebrity Century and Carnival Legend.

“The plan, to be developed in consultation with industry, will forecast the growth in cruise ship arrivals and passenger numbers to ensure NSW is equipped to capture a larger share of the economic benefits, including providing food and other supplies to cruise ships, pre and post-cruise tours for passengers and developing financial models to identify capacity and infrastructure needs.

“The plan will complement the NSW Government’s investment in regional tourism through the new $110 million Regional Tourism Infrastructure Fund by investigating capacity and infrastructure on the North and South Coasts, including ports such as Newcastle and Eden.

“This project will deliver on the Government’s long term commitment to ensure NSW has the capacity requirements, including port infrastructure, stevedoring and ground touring arrangements, in place to meet the forecast growth in cruise ships and passenger numbers over the next 10 years,” he said.

The NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW, consulted with Trade and Investment, Roads and Maritime Services, Sydney Ports Corporation, Royal Caribbean, Carnival Cruises and the Chair of the Visitor Economy Taskforce Cruise Advisory Group in the request for quotation process.

MI Associates will also partner with ICF GHK and Hill PDA in the plan’s development. ICF GHK has completed a number of cruise related assignments in the Asia-Pacific region. Projects include the Hong Kong Kai Tak Cruise Terminal Economic Assessment, formulation of a Cruise and Ferry Integrated Seaport Infrastructure Blueprint for Malaysia Assessment and the Shenzhen Prince Bay Cruise Terminal Market Assessment and Strategy.

The report is due to be completed by the end of 2014.

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