Published: 17 March 2007.

Brisbane the start of something big!

Brisbane has emerged as a new Pacific cruise shipping port, Tourism Minister Margaret Keech said today.

But Mrs Keech said the best was yet to come with new facilities being built in Brisbane and others planned for the Gold Coast and Townsville.

"The base-porting of P and O's Cruises' Pacific Star will inject more than $30 million into the Queensland economy and boost the city's global cruise ship profile," Mrs Keech said at the official naming ceremony for Brisbane's newest tourist attraction.

"Queensland's growing cruising reputation will be enhanced by the new Brisbane Cruise Terminal at Hamilton that will attract international tourists to Queensland.

"We already attract 70 per cent of all cruise ships that visit Australia, with Queensland ports boasting more than 300 visits last year, well up on 205 only three years ago.

"Brisbane is scheduled to host 52 cruise ship visits this year - twice as many as 2004.

"The cruise industry looks like injecting more than $100 million into the Queensland economy this year, with Pacific Star helping to contribute more than a third of that amount."

Mrs Keech said more than 160,000 Australians travelled on cruise ships here and overseas each year - an increase of almost 40 per cent in three years.

"Cruising is now a $40 billion global industry. It will accommodate a record 11.7 million passengers this year and 20 million by 2012 as ships increase in size up to 158,000 tons, or three-and-a-half times the size of the Titanic," she said.

"With numbers like these, the message is obvious: Let's ride the wave."

Mrs Keech said the SmartState thinkers of Tourism Queensland and other agencies of the Beattie Government, the Port of Brisbane Corporation, the cruise industry and Queensland destinations were working on a Cruise Shipping Plan.

"The aim is to make this state a magnetic place for the cruisegoers of the world," she said.

"The $300 million PortsideWharf project, which includes the new Brisbane Cruise Terminal, commercial/retail facilities and up to 400 residential units, is expected to be complete around mid-year.

"Construction of the Gold Coast Cruise Terminal, part of a marina and tourism development, should commence in 2008 and be completed by 2010. Nine expressions of interest are currently being reviewed.

"And construction of the Townsville Ocean Terminal, centrepiece of a residential/tourism development, is likely to begin in mid-2007 with completion anticipated by mid-2009.

"Brisbane is just the beginning, with Townsville and the Gold Coast to follow as popular ports of the south Pacific."

Media contacts: Belinda Carroll 3224 2007 or David Smith 3225 1005

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