The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority celebrated the arrival of the 25 millionth cruise passenger through the Port. To mark the occasion, the port authority hosted a celebration at Canada Place.
Vancouver continues to attract a wide spectrum of cruise lines and passengers from around the world. This year, 32 different vessels from 14 cruise lines will be visiting the Canada Place cruise terminal, ranging from luxury smaller expedition style ships, to some of the largest vessels in the Alaska cruise market.
The Vancouver cruise industry stimulates nearly three million dollars to the local economy for each cruise ship that visits Canada Place and $1.6 billion in total economic impact. Ty Speer, President & CEO of Tourism Vancouver, stated:
It is wonderful to be celebrating Vancouver’s 25 millionth cruise passenger just a few days before the start of Tourism Week. Tourism is not only hugely beneficial to Vancouver’s economy through direct spending and job creation, it also has a positive impact on local residents through infrastructure development, and by supporting the viability of festivals, events, museums and attractions.
Highlights for 2018 cruise season
- More than 895,000 passengers are expected on 241 vessel visits in Vancouver in 2018, a 7% increase in passenger volumes compared to the 2017 season.
- The 2018 season includes several new vessels including Windstar Cruises’ Star Legend luxury cruise ship and the Norwegian Jewel, which will be replacing the Norwegian Sun.
- The Port of Vancouver’s Canada Place cruise terminal welcomes the return of Holland America, Princess Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent, Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Crystal Cruises, and Silversea Cruises. These cruise lines all have vessels that use the Port of Vancouver as home port to begin and end each cruise.
- The Port of Vancouver welcomes the Norwegian Bliss, the largest cruise ship to date to visit Vancouver, accommodating more than 4,000 passengers.
In 2009, the Canada Place cruise ship terminal became the first in Canada and third in the world to offer shore power for cruise ships. Since then, there have been 493 successful shore power connections out of 624 calls that are able to connect at the Canada Place cruise terminal.
This equates to a total of 58,000 tons of fuel savings, more than 18,000 tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and 524 tons of air pollutant reductions.
