Town cruises to tourism success

Broome has bolstered its rating as a cruise ship destination with a record number of passengers giving the town a tick of approval.

In the same season as a more united approach towards making the most of the lucrative market, Broome’s satisfaction rating among visitors has jumped from 57 per cent in 2014-15 to 85 per cent in 2015-16.

The news comes with the announcement the number of port visits is set to increase from 15 to 17 passenger liners in 2016-17.

The information was released at a meeting in Perth hosted by Tourism WA for stakeholders and companies involved in the industry.

The WA Cruise Exchange was attended by representatives from Cruise Broome — formed by the Broome Chamber of Commerce and Industry — and the Kimberley Ports Authority.

Both were invited to pitch the town as a future must-see desti-nation.

Cruise Broome chairman Shayne Murray said he was delighted with the latest feedback scores.

He said major players like P&O and operators Carnival acknowledged Broome was playing a more proactive role towards improving the overall visitor experience.

“By feedback from stakeholders, we exceeded expectations in re-establishing relationships with major international cruise ship companies and agents,” Mr Murray said.

Broome Tourism Leadership Group chairman James Brown complimented Cruise Broome as “a good example of industry and local government collectively campaigning to increase cruise ship activity and address perception issues in the marketplace”.

“It’ll be great to welcome the 30,000 cruise ship visitors coming to Broome next year,” he said.

BCCI president Peter Taylor said the positive feedback from the cruise industry was “testament to what can be achieved by key stakeholders working together towards a common goal”.

“If the same level of collaboration can be harnessed to tackle other issues facing Broome then we can have a bright future,” he said.

The next cruise ship calls are the Sea Princess on September 10 and the Dawn Princess on September 14. Each ship will carry about 2000 passengers.