Brisbane Olympics urged to hire cruise ships to beat “embarrassing” hotel shortage

• Cruise ships are being suggested as an accomodation option for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.
• Brisbane is estimated to be 10,000 rooms short for the accomodation demand that the Olympics will create.
• The Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Natassia Wheeler has suggested that cruise ships would help Brisbane avoid an “embarrassing” situation of not having enough rooms in six years time.

Tourism groups are telling the Queensland government to hire cruise ships to avert an “embarrassing” shortage of 10,000 hotel beds in Brisbane before the Olympic Games.

The city has just six years to solve the accommodation shortage before the 2032 Brisbane Games. Queensland’s Tourism Industry Council CEO Natassia Wheeler has suggested using cruise ships for extra accommodation. 

Cruise ships have been used before as accommodation for major events and during crisis like the COVID pandemic.

Building enough hotels in time for 2032 would be impossible. The average Hilton hotel only has about 150 rooms, meaning Brisbane would need to build the equivalent of 66 Hilton hotels in the next six years. 

While it could be argued it would be better for the local economy to build these hotels and have them for the long-term, not only does this rely heavily on outside private investment, but it’s unlikely that future tourism demand will be able to fill so much capacity. 

Cruise ships, on the other hand, can provide thousands of high-quality rooms.

In the Rio games in 2026, the London 20112, Athens 2000 games and more, cruise ships served as extra accommodation. 

The Olympics creates a massive demand for accommodation. About 11,000 athletes compete in a summer olympics, compared to just over 1000 for a soccer world cup. Then these athletes have their own teams, filled with coaches, physios, trainers and more. 

Then comes a host full of corporate sponsors, partners and more. This is all before even considering the massive tourism demand. 

Natassia Wheeler told The Courier Mail newspaper that cruise ships could help Brisbane avoid what would be an ‘embarrassing’ problem of undercapacity.

“At this point we know that our hotels will be full … every part of our accommodation sector’s going to be full and we’re still likely to have a shortage, so let’s get wild with our ideas.

“Why can’t we drag in two or three cruise ships? That could get you 7000 extra rooms straight up.”

The only cruise ship that sails year-round out of Brisbane, Carnival Encounter, has space for 3115 guests, meaning two or three ships of this size would already largely close the gap on accommodation needs.

Wheeler says cruise ships can be used in conjunction with newbuild hotels. Hotels can still be built to boost the local economy and sustain over the long-term, but cruise ships can help ease the challenge of having to potentially build 10,000 rooms.

“It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still build – we should be trying to build as much as we can. We’re not building just for the Olympic and Paralympic Games … we’re building for the legacy beyond, right?

“So we will still need more hotels, we need more beds, but for that shorter term with 2032, we need to find a solution.”

Australian Cruise Association CEO Jill Abel told the Courier Mail that she’s behind the idea, but things need to move fast to make it happen.

“Working with the cruise sector for the 2032 Games could have long-lasting benefits for the cruise and broader tourism sectors for decades to come.

“The clock is ticking. We must put an Olympics cruise activation program in place now.”

How would this work?

There are many questions about how this could work. The most critical problem is that Brisbane’s international cruise terminal can only handle one cruise ship at a time.

The best solution could be to use this as an impetus to expand the terminal, which has proved extremely successful in its first years of operation, to be able to take at least two ships. 

This would go a long way towards solving Brisbane’s accommodation problems for the Olympics, and create a stronger cruising future for Brisbane and Australia. 

Brisbane is already the second most popular city for cruising in Australia, and it has plenty of potential to grow more. It’s the closest major Aussie port to the South Pacific, as well just a couple of hours from the Great Barrier Reef, arguably Australia’s number one attraction. 

This does beg the question over what would happen to local cruising during the Olympics if this plan did go ahead. However, the reality is that it could be easily accounted for.

The Olympics only goes for just over two weeks, and happens in July, well outside of the cruise season. Ships could easily redirect to Sydney for two weeks while the Olympics are on. 

Another idea has been floated about keeping guests in Moreton Bay and ferrying them into the city, but this will surely create too many inconveniences and could be complicated in poor weather conditions.

The most logical solution long-term solution for the local economy would be to expand the Brisbane terminal to cater for two cruise ships, and make up the rest of the accommodation needs in new hotels.