25 July 2008
Cruise Ship Berth Looking Promising
Posted by Ryan Coffey under: Uncategorized .
Scanning the papers as I typcially do, I found an article in The Province that made a promising statement about cruise ships in our area. It’s claiming that "total cruise-related spending in 2007 in B.C. stood at $765 million, up from $660 million in 2003". Last year, this helped create close to 7,000 jobs". It goes on to explain that the industry is booming and I have to say that this makes things look promising for Nanaimo as we’re poised to have our cruise ship berth installed, that is providing we can raise a few million more dollars. The local paper, Nanaimo Daily News, recently reported that in addition to the $5 million the community received from the provincial government, the Port Authority has another $5million for the project, but is in need of raising/finding more for the proejct so they are applying for more funds from a couple of other sources in hopes of getting the rest needed for this $18.5 million project.
Cruise ships are already a big deal for businesses in the downtown area, even though they have to shuttle their passengers into port via smaller boats, imagine the difference once we make it easy for them.
You’d be surprised at how many of these visitors from the cruise ships show interest in moving here even though they only visited for a couple of hours. I suppose the view by coming into Nanaimo along the green forested coastline with all its wildife is alluring.
Here are the links to the articles mentioned:
Ryan Coffey