Carnival Cruise Line set to offer cheap flights and cruise options from USA to Qld
A major international cruise line is hoping to entice more Americans to Queensland by leveraging new cheap direct flights and more sailing options.
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A major international cruise line is hoping to entice more Americans to Queensland by leveraging new cheap direct flights and more sailing options to the Great Barrier Reef.
Members of the Carnival Cruise Line sales team recently flew to Texas to talk to 100 travel agents about luring more visitors to fly to the sunshine state.
The CCL team worked with the agents to look at ways to package a Queensland cruise holiday and promote its soon to be two Brisbane-based ships to American holiday makers.
This story is part of The Courier-Mail’s annual Future Brisbane series advocating for a focus on the right legacy outcomes from the hosting of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. You can read all of our coverage here.
From December there will be 31 flights from Brisbane to North America per week, with cheaper airfares expected to attract cashed-up visitors in return.
A record 114,000 Americans visited Brisbane in the 12 months to June this year, up 3.9 per cent on the previous 2019 record.
CCL is hoping that love affair continues when the rebranded Carnival Encounter ship, acquired through the company’s integration with P&O Cruises Australia, joins their fleet and is based in Brisbane all year round from March next year.
The ship joins sister vessel Carnival Luminosa, who sails out of Brisbane from November to April.
Carnival Luminosa recently sailed from Seattle to Australia with nearly 3000 guests on board – 90 per cent of them were international guests.
Carnival Cruise Line national sales manager Mark Richards said the trip to Texas revealed many Americans had a Queensland cruise high on their bucket list.
“They love the idea of destinations like the Whitsundays and Great Barrier Reef because they consider ports like Airlie Beach and Cairns to be unique and laid-back,” he said.
“We’ve definitely noticed an increase in Americans sailing on Carnival Cruise Line voyages from Brisbane, since direct flights from the US began.
“We expect the number of Americans sailing on Carnival in Queensland will increase in the lead up to the Brisbane Olympics.”
The cruise sector in Barcelona was a key tourism pillar developed in the lead up to the 1992 Olympic and Paralympic Games, mark the turning point in the city’s positioning as the Mediterranean and Europe’s number one cruise port, according to the International Olympic Committee.
Recent data from Cruise Lines International Association found international guests spend an average $660 each day while in Brisbane at the beginning or end of a voyage.
Texas natives and frequent cruises Keli Consolver, Kathy Phleiderer, Michelle Pruitt and Ryan Pruitt this month got a taste of the river city after disembarking a Carnival Luminosa cruise from Sydney to Brisbane.
The family said a visit to Queensland was less expensive and more relaxing trip compared to the Mediterranean and a more relaxing experience.
“Being able to see multiple ports and multiple things obviously is good because when we travel … we find the places that we really want to go back to and maybe spend more time later,” Mr Pruitt said.
“We’ve gone to Europe and it is super crowded.
“Here, nothing was overly crowded.”
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Originally published as Carnival Cruise Line set to offer cheap flights and cruise options from USA to Qld
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