THE Northern Territory’s Department of Tourism, Sport and Culture has opened a tender for a consultant to update the current five-year NT Cruise Sector Activation Plan. The updated plan will look at the prospects for the Territory’s cruise sector during the period 2020 to 2025, with the aim of “articulating...
THE Northern Territory’s Department of Tourism, Sport and Culture has opened a tender for a consultant to update the current five-year NT Cruise Sector Activation Plan.
The updated plan will look at the prospects for the Territory’s cruise sector during the period 2020 to 2025, with the aim of “articulating specific goals, strategies, core activities and marketing approaches to grow the cruise sector and deliver economic outcomes for the NT”.
The consultant will work with the existing cruise sector working group in the NT, which includes Tourism NT, Darwin Port Operations, Darwin City and Waterfront Retailers Association, the City of Darwin, Tourism Top End, Darwin Waterfront Corporation and Activate Darwin.
“Darwin’s geographic location and close proximity to Asia make it an attractive Australian gateway port for visiting international cruise ships,” the tender states.
The majority of cruise ship activity occurs in Australasian waters between Oct and Apr, with many vessels using Darwin as their entry and exit point, and cruising generating about $172m in NT expenditure in 2017/18 according to CLIA Australasia.
The project will seek to provide a summary of the current cruise market, the economic value of the cruise sector and identify issues, priorities and opportunities for growth relevant to home porting, expedition vessels, larger cruise ships, infrastructure requirements, domestic and international target markets.
Darwin is undergoing significant development, including a new $200 million Westin Hotel overlooking the harbour which is expected to open in 2021.
The tender closes in just over two weeks, with the successful consultancy required to deliver its report by 07 Feb 2020.
