HK losing out for lack of cruise terminal
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Hong Kong is losing out on billions of dollars a year in potential revenue from cruise passengers because it lacks a proper cruise terminal, industry observers were quoted saying.
According to The Standard, Inbound Travel Association Chairman, Paul Leung Yiu-lam, had said many cruise lines exclude Hong Kong from their itineraries because it has no world class cruise berths. The one to be built at Kai Tak will not be ready before 2012.
The report quoted the example of the luxury liner Diamond Princess, with 3,000 passengers aboard, which was too big for the Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui.
Princess Holidays, a local sales and marketing agent appointed by Diamond Princess’s operator Princess Cruises, has said in a strongly worded statement the liner was “a diamond dropped into the water”.
The arrangement of private boats to ferry passengers from ship to shore had seriously damaged the image of Hong Kong, it was quoted saying.
Leung was quoted saying that cruise travellers had high spending power. Many of them join inbound tours in Hong Kong and spend as much as US$1,000 a day each. If the Kai Tak cruise terminal reaches its full capacity, he was quoted saying it would bring more than HK$20 billion (US$2.58 billion) a year to Hong Kong.
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