• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Norfolk Port to Lose Cruise Line

Posted on: Wednesday, 5 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

By Chris Flores, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

Oct. 4--Norfolk's emerging cruise industry was dealt a blow when officials recently discovered that the new $36-million terminal will open in 2007 without the cruise line that has fueled the recent years' growth.

Holland America no longer will sail the Maasdam, a 1,266-passenger ship, out of Norfolk after its last voyage in 2006. The relationship with Holland has been strong and its ships have been full, said Rich Conti, executive director of the city-owned cruise terminal called Nauticus.

"They tell us the yields here are pretty high," said Conti. "They obviously think they can get better yields doing something else."

Conti speculated that Holland hopes to draw the mid-Atlantic cruisers when the company starts its new Noordam ship in New York next year. Holland may be re-deploying the Maasdam for a South Florida Panama Canal tour, or somewhere else they can charge more, said Conti.

Although the loss of Holland before the new hub opens is painful for the local cruise industry, officials still are hopeful other cruise lines will be drawn to Norfolk. But the loss comes after two other lines announced they will not depart from Norfolk in 2006.

Conti said he hopes the city's strong relationship will bring another Holland America ship back to Norfolk. But he doesn't see it happening until after 2007, when there are no cruise lines scheduled for departure from Norfolk.

Nauticus is in daily talks with other cruise lines about 2007. The number of passengers keeps increasing, the lines are adding more ships and the industry is still diversifying to ports outside of Florida, said Conti.

"The same market forces that got us to where we are now are still in play," said Conti.

Holland's arrival in 2004 marked the beginning of Norfolk becoming a cruise departure point year-round. The number of passengers sailing out of Norfolk skyrocketed to 107,000 in 2004, up from 50,000 in 2003.

About 110,000 tourists will sail out of Nauticus in 2005 aboard four cruise lines -- Celebrity Cruises, Holland America, Radisson Seven Seas and Carnival. Radisson and Celebrity previously had announced that they were moving to other ports next year.

The departure number is projected to drop to about 69,000 in 2006. But the lower number will help because it has been hard to construct the new facility -- right next to the existing one -- as ships come in all year in 2005, said Conti.

"We may add something in late 2006 if we can do it without interfering with the construction," he said.

Nauticus' new cruise terminal is expected to be complete in early 2007. Nauticus officials expect they will eventually need about 189,000 passengers departing out of Norfolk a year to pay debt service and operational costs on the new terminal. That figure is just from direct city cruise fees.

The economic impact of the cruise lines is more significant than the fees. According to Nauticus, the tourists will spend about $11.4 million while in the region in 2005. The 40,000 crew members that leave the ships in Norfolk in 2005 will dole out another $4.4 million.

In 2005, there are 48 cruises departing from Norfolk. So far, there are only 21 departures slated from Nauticus for 2006. But it's not time to panic about 2007 yet, said Conti. Cruise lines often wait until late to make a decision -- Holland announced it was headed to Norfolk just five months prior to the move.

-----

To see more of the Daily Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dailypress.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

CCL, RCL,

Source: Daily Press

More News in this Category