Cruising To A Share of Sea Holiday Trade

On November 19 last year, the 109,000-ton cruise liner Star Princess docked at Suva's wharf. Capable of carrying 3800 passengers and crew, more than the populations of Niue, Tokelau and Norfolk Island, the ship is the largest vessel ever to tie up anywhere in the South Pacific.

Despite their fabled allure, the Pacific Islands have so far been the absolute backwater of the big cruise liner business.

The islands have been too far to reach for cruise passengers‹mainly Americans‹with just a couple of weeks holiday a year to spend. Also the region doesn't have many ports capable of presenting facilities that cruise ship owners, captains and passengers require.

Was the advent of the mighty Star Princess a portent of the shape of more frequent calls to come?

It looks like it, reports the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), in a study on prospects the region has for winning more cruise liners to its ports.

Star Princess... her first trip to Australia. Photo: Meggan Brummer.

It says cruises have huge potential earning power for the Pacific Islands if such strategies as promoting the great variety of destinations it has to offer is adopted, and by selling the idea that its ports are safe to visit than Asian and Caribbean rival ports.

"The provision of specialist infrastructure for cruise ships and their passengers are vital in attracting cruise ships," the SPTO says.

Globally, the business has been growing at a passenger growth rate averaging 8% since 1980 and this is expected to continue. In 2002 9.2 million people booked for cruises.

The South Pacific's share of the business is minute. But by 2002, the capacity for cruises in the region has increased by 126% over a five-year period, while total global capacity rose by only 44%. Between 2001 and 2002, trans-Pacific capacity doubled.

However, in 2002, the average length of cruises fell from 9.9 to seven days. With longer distances between Pacific Islands, the trend towards shorter cruises meant that some Pacific ports are getting fewer calls.

Compared with the Caribbean, in the Pacific distances between destinations are long, and so is the distance from the main market, North America. In 2002, the South Pacific got only 1.3% of global cruise ship capacity. While the top three destinations measured by the numbers of calls are New Caledonia, Vanuatu and French Polynesia, Fanning Island, part of Kiribati, records the greatest numbers, with landings jumping from 10,371 passengers from nine ships in 2001 to 67 ships and 118,474 passenger in 2002.

That was because Norwegian Cruise Lines makes a weekly call at Fanning Island as part of its Hawaii cruises since American law bans foreign ships making cruises only to American ports.

Political unrest has cost Fiji and the Solomons lost calls. Most of SPTO's research was based on the American market, with little in the way of research and statistics available from the relatively miniscule South and Central Pacific cruising business.

Three companies dominate the business, Carnival, which recently grew by buying P&O Princes cruises, Royal Caribbean International and Star Cruises. The trend is for bigger ships with up to 3500 berths, like the Star Princess, and for short cruises, due to the limited time a lot of passengers have and a tendency for several short holidays a year rather than one long one.

P&O reckons that this year its ships will put F$19.8 million into New Caledonia, F$15.2 million into Vanuatu, but only F$2.4 million into Fiji. While P&O ships visited Fiji only six times last year, the gain for Fiji was estimated at F$4.2 million from 8628 passengers and 3722 crew. This broke down to F$391,000 for port costs, F$3.45 million spending by passengers, and F$672,000 spending by crew.

Fanning Island has only 1615 inhabitants. The weekly calls by Norwegian Cruise Lines have a huge impact, with thousands of dollars spent ashore during each call. The cruise company pays the government US$15,000 per call and it funded a jetty.

The SPTO estimates that generally shore spending by passenger averages from US$35 to US$200 a day, depending on what's on offer ashore.

New destinations are Pentecost, Malekula and Epic in Vanuatu; Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia; and Poum in New Caledonia.

The main operator in the region is P&0 Australia which runs year-round cruises with Pacific Sky from Sydney. From this year, a new 1900-ton berth ship will go into operation which will lift annual passenger numbers from 61,000 in 2002 to about 150,000.

Because of the success of cruises from Australia, the main Pacific Islands market, Star Cruises repositioned Superstar Leo to Australia for the first three months of this year.

Crystal Cruises this year will also cruise to Fanning Island and will go to Christmas Island for the first time.

Melbourne Spirit will be based in the Pacific this year for cruises to Papua New Guinea and Fiji; and Fred Olsen Cruises will enter the region for the first time.