Philly continues to push revamped cruise port
SLHFOTO
Its popularity still pales in comparison to New Orleans or Boston, but
Philadelphia tourism officials have spent $12 million to attract more cruise
ships.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Its popularity still pales in comparison to New Orleans or
Boston, but Philadelphia tourism officials have spent $12 million to attract
more cruise ships to a recently renovated terminal.
The revamped cruise terminal in the Philadelphia Naval Business Center has
already resulted in an increase in cruise ship traffic, including a visit this
week from the largest cruise ship ever to call in the city.
The 963-foot-long Carnival Legend, the length of an aircraft carrier, headed
down the Delaware River on Wednesday for a six-night voyage to Bermuda,
carrying 2,100 passengers.
The Legend is one of two ships using the terminal and pier this year as a place
to start weeklong cruises, and five other ships have made daylong port calls.
The ships carried a total of 7,130 passengers.
"I think for $11.8 million, this was a great investment," said Melissa A.
Grimm, director of the Delaware River Port Authority's Port of Philadelphia and
Camden division, referring to the money spent on the former Naval Shipyard pier
and century-old industrial building.
Grimm was among the officials, travel agents and other guests who toured the
Legend's 11-story atrium, restaurants, nightclubs, bars, retail shops, health
spa, children's playroom, a video arcade and chapel before the ship departed.
Next year, the Legend and ships owned by Celebrity Cruises and Norwegian Cruise
Lines are slated to make 12 embarkations and five port calls, with a total of
more than 34,000 passengers.
That approaches Philadelphia's peak year for cruises, 2000, when Apple
Vacations of Newtown Square chartered an 800-passenger ship, the Crown Dynasty,
for a spring-to-fall season of trips to Bermuda. It made 26 cruises with a
total of 36,000 passengers. The ship's parent company went bankrupt in late
2001, however, and the trips stopped.
Some other port cities have a head start in attracting cruise ships.
New Orleans, where 500,000 passengers will embark on 163 cruises this year, has
a terminal in a building put up for its 1984 World's Fair and renovated in 1991
for $15 million. It is a magnet for tourists who like visiting the city, and is
close to places cruise passengers want to go in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Boston's Black Falcon Cruise Terminal is in a former cargo building remodeled
in 1980. It is slated to serve 93 ships and 210,000 passengers this year. And
the board of the Massachusetts Bay Port Authority is considering whether to go
ahead with a new $12 million terminal put on hold after the Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorist attacks.
Trends today give Philadelphia a chance of attracting more ships, port
officials and others in the travel business said.
Especially since Sept. 11, 2001, many vacationers prefer to drive a short
distance from home to board a cruise ship, rather than fly, which makes cities
such as Philadelphia attractive to Carnival Cruise Lines, said Vicki Freed,
Carnival's senior vice president for sales and marketing.
She said Philadelphia was one of 18 U.S. ports where the company based ships.
Estimates by the DRPA's port division indicate cruise ships will generate
$900,000 in revenue this year for businesses such as food wholesalers that
supply ships, and will pay $500,000 in wages to dock workers and employees of
supplier businesses. With more ships expected next year, business revenue is
expected to go up to $5.5 million, and the wages from employment should
increase to $2.9 million, the port estimated.
October 25, 2002
Marclaw
never be a huge cruise port. Cruise lines lose a the casino revenue & ship
store revenue that first night, plus pay taxes on all drink sales because they
are not in international waters. Next, nothbound routes are out of the question
because you have to come up river from 100 miles to the south to get to Phila
and go south 100 miles to get out to the sea.
Marc