Last week, the federal government announced that cruise ships will be welcome back into Canada on November 1, 2021. For Halifax, the news was more than welcome.
In 2019, the cruise industry brought $165 million into the local economy.
Now cruise lines can prepare to come into Halifax in the 2022 season. According to Lane Ferguson, spokesperson for the Halifax Port Authority, there are already 159 tentative vessel visits that are potentially coming to Halifax next year. In comparison, Halifax had 179 visits in 2019.
“Here in Halifax, we do have interest amongst the cruise lines to come back. So, we’re in a strong position to rebuild the industry here,” says Ferguson.
“So now what we need to do is start penciling those in and firming those up, and this announcement allows us to start doing that. We can start putting together a schedule for 2022 and beyond.”
But Ferguson cautions that health protocols for cruise ship visitors will be the most important factor going forward. The Port Authority plans to work with experts at the provincial and federal levels to make sure cruise ship visits will be safe come 2022.
“Certainly, it was helpful because we can start on that work now…there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done; protocols to be developed in coordination with the industry and with the health experts as well.”
“Whatever moves forward has to be done in a manner that is safe.”
Return of Cruise Ships Big News For Tourism Companies
When Dennis Campbell learned last week that the federal government will be allowing cruise ships to sail into Canadian ports on November 1, the first thing he did was to inform the many staff members of Ambassatours. Over the last year and a half, there hasn’t been a lot of good news for the tourism industry.
“We sent out a joyous notification to all of our cruise staff, because we have cruise staff all across Atlantic Canada, and it was a very welcome message,” said Campbell, Ambassatours CEO.
“There hasn’t been a lot of good news where it relates to cruise lines lately, so everyone was very pleased to hear this.”
“We still have hundreds of staff that are still laid off and will remain laid off until early next spring,” Campbell said on the harsh impact Covid-19 has had on the company.
Even though no one expects cruise ships to arrive in the fall or winter of 2021, cruise companies can now plan their visits to Halifax’s port.
“It sends a very strong message to the cruise lines around the world, saying to them ‘hey, Canada will be open and welcoming for cruise visitors in 2022,’” said Campbell.
“The cruise lines, many of them had made their 2022 bookings with us, and the booking levels, quite frankly, were extremely high-in fact, even up to 2019 levels.”
Campbell has been in contact with cruise line companies both before and after the November 1 date was announced. He says the industry is enthusiastic about coming back to Halifax. He also notes tourists are itching to go back onto cruise ships, as advanced sales are skyrocketing.
“What we’re hearing from the analysts and from the cruise lines is that they’re essentially almost sold out now for the next two years. It’s encouraging to think that we’re almost back at the peak 2019 cruise levels,” he said.
