Arrival Of Multiple Cruise Ships To Fiji
More than 3000 passengers are expected to arrive on the multiple cruise ships that are to berth in Suva over the weekend.
The cruise ships are; Zuiderdam, Westerdam, and Grand Princess.
Chief operations officer for Tourism, Leigh Howard said, two of the three cruise ships would berth in Suva on Sunday, they are Westerdam and Zuiderdam.
Westerdam will stop over in Dravuni and Lautoka before leaving for Vanuatu, while Zuiderdam’s next stop is Nuku’alofa, Tonga.
Mr Howard said it was fantastic to see the Australasian region again.
Holland America Line-Westerdam.
“Westerdam essentially, has American clientele on board which is great to see that a mixture of Australians and Americans that are coming through our port visits, it’s a diversity.,” Mr Howard said.
“Grand Princess is also another very high class.”
Mr Howard said there would be no need to stretch resources on any operational needs in the respective ports as it would be a normal day.
“It will be business as usual as the team in Suva and Lautoka will essentially service both vessels.”
Development
Plans to conduct a workshop with local operators in the coming months.
This would help develop their product and to educate them on the process to sell.
“We certainly want passengers to go out on various tours and experiences.
“But definitely we need to work with how the guides go about selling their respective tours as we certainly don’t want people to be very aggressive pulling passengers away to try and speak to them.
“While it has never happened I really believe that we’ve been very well behaved in the facilitation of tours.” he said.
“It’s fantastic to see that cruise is going really well and we’re seeing a number of different brands reposition their vessels within our region. It’s great to have Holland America back in Fiji again,” Mr Howard said.
Grand Princess.
Zuiderdam is owned and operated by Holland American Line.
Tourism Fiji chief executive officer, Brent Hill said they have had mutliple ships in Fiji before COVID.
He said it’s busy but was great for the industry.
Feedback: laisa.kabulevu@fijisun.com.fj
