Wollongong says “We’re putting our hand up to be Sydney’s third terminal”

• The Wollongong City Council will officially submit for Port Kembla to be Sydney’s new cruise terminal
• There is an official advisory board set up to find a third cruise terminal location for Sydney
• Royal Caribbean Vice President of Australia and New Zealand Gavin Smith has previously said he would move Royal Caribbean ships to Wollongong if there were a terminal

The Wollongong City Council has made a significant decision to submit for Port Kembla to be Sydney’s third cruise terminal. All of Wollongong’s key political figures are in support, and they believe they also have some industry backing.

The New South Wales government officially set up a panel of cruise and tourism industry experts to work on finding the new location. Wollongong has acted fast, already voting to begin preparing a submission to the advisory board. 

Very notable is that Gavin Smith, Vice President and Managing Director of Royal Caribbean International in Australia is on that board, and he has previously said that he would “move the Royal Caribbean fleet there tomorrow” if Port Kembla was the new Sydney cruise terminal location.

Smith’s response to the latest reports remains: “We go where we are welcome.”

Lord Mayor of Wollongong Tania Brown has been the driving force behind Wollongong’s efforts in cruise, and she spoke with Cruise Passenger about why she believes Port Kembla is the perfect location, and what it could do for her city and the wider region economically.

“Now that New South Wales is looking for a third terminal, we’re putting our hand up to say, come to us.

“If Port Botany doesn’t want you, Sydney Harbour doesn’t want you, and Newcastle’s too far, then Port Kembla is your best option.

“We’ve hosted seven-day visits of cruise ships here and we’ve demonstrated how welcoming Wollongong is to cruise passengers.

“We ran an ambassador program which welcomed the visitors as they came into our civic precinct and that was highly regarded.

“Some of the captains of the Royal Caribbean ships said they’d never had such a welcome.”

Paul Scully, member for Wollongong, also told Cruise Passenger that he’s fully behind the campaign.

“I can’t think of a better location for a cruise terminal than in Port Kembla. A cruise ship terminal would be a welcome addition to the Wollongong visitor economy, provide tourism operators with a big boost, and support additional investment in accommodation in the region.

 “Wollongong has hosted cruise ship visits in the past and this has proved to be a popular stop for visitors but also one in which the local tourism community stepped up with additional offerings.

“We have the port infrastructure; we are close to Sydney and its current and future airports and we have shown the capacity to host visits in the past. It might sound parochial, but I cannot think of a better or more supportive city to host the expansion of cruise activities in NSW.”

The Port Authority New South Wales commented: “The Cruise Industry Advisory Panel is assessing options to grow cruise capacity including the location of a future terminal which will be delivered to the NSW Government once the panel completes its work.”

It can be confirmed that Yarra Bay, Molineaux Point, and Garden Island have been ruled out. 

Furthermore, while the possibility of increasing the capacity of the Circular Quay cruise terminal is being explored, even if it is refurbished, NSW Ports says a third cruise terminal will still be a necessity.

Something has to give and a decision has to be made, and Wollongong is putting its hands firmly in the air for Port Kembla to fill that gap.

Is Royal Caribbean backing Wollongong’s success?

At a cruising conference last year Gavin Smith, said that if there was a terminal at Port Kembla, he’d move Royal Caribbean’s entire fleet there tomorrow.

Brown comments: “Gavin Smith actually said that in Wollongong at a cruise industry conference August last year.

“And this year he repeated and said, we go where we’re welcome. And they’re certainly welcome in Wollongong.

“Now Gavin is on the advisory committee that the state government has established to look for the location. So I’m certainly hoping that he’s a champion for Wollongong in that room.”

Sydney port has notoriously high port fees, meaning that its possible that cruise executives would be allured by a new terminal with a lower cost of entry.

Is Port Kembla too far from Sydney? 

A big question over Port Kembla’s suitability is its distance from Sydney, it’s about an hour-and-a-half driving from the CBD, but Brown sees this as more of a strength than a weakness.

“In terms of logistics, we’re an hour and a quarter down the road from the major Sydney airport.

“And I know in other countries like Rome, it’s an hour before you get to the port. So it’s not unusual in the cruise industry to be a bit away from the centre.

“And while everyone has been very spoiled by the Sydney Harbour and the sites of that,

most of the cruising passengers, I think a lot of them are coming from within an hour, two hours of Port Kembla. A lot in the Southern Highlands, western Sydney, it’s easier for them to get here than into the centre of Sydney.

“And I think we offer more opportunities in and around coming and staying in the region for a few days before or after access down to the south coast.”

Royal Caribbean previously sailed to Wollongong on occasion, before the pandemic, meaning they already have a relationship with the location.

The economic benefits to the region

Brown believes the new terminal would greatly elevate the region’s economy.

“I think it would be a huge economic benefit for the region. We’ve been fighting to get more hotels built down here, and I think this would be a game changer for the region in sending a signal to the hotel development industry, that this is your next frontier. We’ve got quite a few already approved. We just need them to get out of the ground.

“But then I think the jobs benefit, we have quite a, we usually took a bit higher on the youth unemployment rate against the state average. We also have a lot of skilled workers.

“However I think the employment opportunities for our region, as well as the provision of services, food, beverage, we can service all of that as well.”

Beyond just the infrastructure and the jobs, cruise visits bring in lots of tourism dollars, but Brown makes the port that turnaround ports, where cruisers start and end their cruise, is a whole other level of profits.

“When we had the day visits, it looked at about a million dollars to the visitor economy. Obviously, a turnaround port is a whole other stratosphere.

“In terms of economic return and long-term benefit, when people come in as they’ll stay one or two nights before or after their cruise, they’ll park their car, have their dinner the night before, breakfast before embarking, all of that will help our region.”

Scully believes the economic benefit would be significant, and that considerations of sustainability would be important and possible as well.

“A commitment to a terminal would not only support accommodation investment, something that is being encouraged by councils in the region, it would also support additional investments in attractions and the hospitality sector.

 “A new terminal would also allow it to be created with sustainability considerations in mind. Naysayers find it easy to criticise the cruise industry about sustainability, but a new terminal can help drive improvements in sustainability.”

How about shore excursions? What is there to do?

The Mayor sees a sea of possible activities for tourists who come through on cruise ships.

“When we hosted Radiance of the Seas, we had people go up to the Helensburg to Symbio Wildlife Park.

“There’s the Illawarra Fly as you head south, which is a rainforest walk. People went down south to wineries.”

Brown also comments that the region is building its tourism offerings for Indigenous cultural tours.

“We’ve now got a lot more product in terms of Indigenous tourism. We know how important that is.”

Other attractions range from mounts biking to coastal walks to bike paths an more. 

“We’re building a mountain bike park here. So there’s that tourism, physical recreation activity as well.

“We’ve got lovely coastal walks, the Grand Pacific Walk that walks along our coastline is quite spectacular. And we’re a bike city, so we’re building up our bike paths and creating opportunities to come and cycle around the city as well.”