We need to talk how Australia will revive its cruising, tourism industries

Chef Luke Mangan says the cruising industry needs a pathway back from the pandemic. Picture: John Feder

As Australia reaches ‘the other side’ of the pandemic, it’s time for Australia to have a serious conversation about cruising as a pathway to restart our once vibrant tourism industry.

Australians are known for pulling together when times a tough – whether it’s a flood, a fire or even a pandemic – and right now as Australia is emerging from the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime we need all hands on deck.

Every sector, every industry and every business, big or small, that is capable of making a positive contribution needs to be given the opportunity and support to do so.

In 2018/19, the cruise sector contributed more than $5 billion to the Australian economy and provided jobs for more than 18,000 hardworking Australians. The benefits of the sector are felt well beyond the capital cities with regional economies benefiting from the thousands of passengers who dispersed into some of Australia’s most beautiful regional towns.

Cruise passengers spend, on average, $387 each day they are on shore in Australia. The benefits are spread across the tourism industry with retail stores, tour operators and restaurants being some of biggest beneficiaries.

However since the cruising sector has been permanently docked, this lucrative tap has been turned off and the repercussions are being felt far and wide.

For example, the cruise industry’s army of suppliers — farmers, travel agents, regional destinations, tour operators, hotels, restaurants, transport operators, live entertainers, musicians and retail outlets — are all feeling the ramifications and the longer ships are docked, the more devastating the impact will be.

While cruising might be seen as a luxury or ‘a nice to have’, for these suppliers it is integral to their livelihoods. These are real people and real businesses.

People like Steve Biviano from Select Fresh Providores which saw business slump by up to 50 per cent when cruising stopped.

Or farmer Manuel Xerri in Sydney’s far northwest who was forced to plough a crop into the ground when there was no longer a market for it.

And Anthony Laffan who swapped the cruise ship stage for making pizzas to support his young family and pay the mortgage.

For all of them, and so many more, it is the complete lack of certainty as to when cruising might resume that is keeping them up at night. Not knowing if they will have a job to go back to or how they are going to survive.

No sector in Australia has been hit harder than travel and tourism. With the closure of international borders and the on-again-off-again-on-again closure of state borders, these businesses are unable to trade with any certainty. It’s a fact of economic life that many, if not most, participants in the tourism economy are small businesses just wanting a modicum of certainty.

Covid-19 hasn’t discriminated in its path of devastation and destruction. In fact, some of those doing it tough right now are well-known, high profile businesses like the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel. The Rocks has long been the visitor gateway to Australia and with the cruise industry shut down, well established businesses are experiencing a downturn like never before. The Rocks is like a ghost town and whilst I applaud the government on their latest splurge in Sydney’s CBD to bring Friday lunches back, I have previously cited the example of the Sydney Harbour Bridge BridgeClimb attraction being reduced from a seven day operation to just two days a week.

All capital cities across this country are struggling with lack of tourism and this is a good way to get people into them and are cruise ships

Much different from a hotel, are they not just a floating hotel?

I have extensive experience as a restaurateur on land, named restaurants at sea on P&O Cruises Australia ships, previous commercial relationships with an airline and as a business owner. And from this experience I know that the same challenges for small business owners are being felt by every business in the hospitality and cruising sectors. They face the same post-pandemic challenges and would benefit from some certainty and support.

As I’ve outlined, both the hospitality and cruising sectors have a long value chain of suppliers who benefit from the ripple effect when times are good but also suffer when times are bad. And both will take time to ramp up again to regain their pre-pandemic vigour and growth potential.

A year and half into the pandemic and on the threshold of emerging from it, governments – federal and state – are yet to approve a pathway to a restart in spite of the fact that the industry, through its peak body Cruise Lines International Association Australasia (CLIA), has put in the work to establish policies and procedures to support a restart beginning with domestic cruising.

Any industry that can safely contribute to the post-pandemic economic recovery should not be overlooked. Cruising has a proven capacity to support a wide range of small businesses that will need all the opportunities they can get.

Covid-19 was always going to leave a legacy of economic challenges. It was an economic disrupter on a massive scale. As I have stated previously, small businesses are going to struggle in the pandemic’s aftermath. I fear many will go to the wall in the absence of the JobKeeper lifeline. So, why is government ignoring a vital industry like cruising that is ready, willing and able to restart and in turn provide a much needed economic stimulus for countless small businesses?

Long before the pandemic started the federal and NSW governments had acknowledged the role of Australia’s cruising industry in growing our tourism sector. In fact, in the 2018/19 federal budget the government committed funding to address cruise capacity constraints in Sydney. However since then we’ve heard very little from the federal government about their support for the sector. Similarly, the NSW government released the 2018 Cruise Development Plan but now that times are tough they have gone silent.

Perhaps the Ruby Princess situation has caused them to go quiet on the sector however they need to recognise that we’ve all come along way since then. Thanks to the work of medical scientists and public health experts we now have a much greater understanding of Covid-19 and the precautions we need to take. Not to mention that Australia is heading towards a vaccinated population.

Australia is blessed to have 25,780km of pristine coastline with capital cities and regional destinations dispersed along the coast. Passengers can enjoy the magnificent Great Barrier Reef or swim with Whale Sharks at Exmouth. From the Cairns in the north to Eden in the south and west to Exmouth, there is no shortage of spectacular cruising experiences in Australia.

Not to mention the eagerness of regional communities to see those big white ships return because they understand the economic prosperity they bring. You only have to see a cruise to Eden on the NSW Sapphire Coast to see what the arrival of 2000 passengers with money to spend means to local restaurants and cafes, shore tours and retail outlets. The town buzzes with Cruise Eden volunteers rolling out the welcome mat.

We have really only just started the enormous fight back from Covid-19. Soaring real estate prices and some good economic numbers could be giving a false sense of security that the battle is already won. Far from it.

If cruising can satisfy regulators with its Covid-safe protocols, why not give the industry a chance to carefully resume domestic cruises? Or at least get serious about the pathway for this to happen knowing that it will take months for ships to be prepared for their return to service.

If all levels of government want to support those 18,000 people who were directly employed in Australia’s cruising sector, they need to take action and increase their investment in the sector. The federal government’s Tourism 2030 Strategy recognises that capacity constraints, like the lack of berthing facilities and constrained passenger terminals, need to be addressed to meet the Tourism 2030 targets.

There is no reason why government couldn’t be making this investment right now. This would provide construction jobs and deliver the infrastructure needed to grow this lucrative sector. Australian cruising could come back bigger and better than before but we need government to act.

Every day we hear politicians talk about how we are all in this together and praise Australians for doing their part to get us to this point. However without action and a sector-by-sector road map for recovery, these words don’t mean much – especially for those not knowing what the future looks like for them.