Brisbane’s new cruise terminal locates on the city’s river has been given the green light to begin construction.
At present, the terminal is slated to finished work by late 2019, and will allegedly be capable of housing the largest cruise ships in the world.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt called the Luggage Point terminal a “new frontier” for the cruise industry.
“This is going to help ports right up and down the coast and cruise shipping is the next frontier in terms of tourism,” he said.
The go-ahead has taken 18 months of negotiations and needed a $158 million project approval fee from the government to begin.
Per The SMH, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, “We are going to see a doubling in the number of cruise ships coming into Queensland.”
“This is a great story for the Queensland economy, but it is also a great sign of the government being able to work with the private sector,” she added.
Roughly 245 jobs will be created by the terminal’s construction and Tourism Minister Kate Jones said around 275,000 tourists are predicted to disembark from the terminal each year.
The terminal has apparently been backed by the private sector with companies like Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruises inking a partnership with the Port of Brisbane Authority to drive the project.
While Brisbane has its sights set on expansion and accommodating cruise ships, Sydney is still plagued by its lack of space in the harbour.
The latest news coming out of the industry is a possible terminal on the north coast of NSW.
According to the ABC, the NSW Government is looking into the possibility of a cruise ship terminal being built at Coffs Harbour of Yamba.
It comes in the wake of news that a terminal at Garden Island could be “doable” by 2022, while another advocate suggested double-stacking at the Overseas Passenger Terminal as the answer, despite major cruise lines rejecting the idea.
