Busy 2012 Cruise Season, 2013 Forecast Looks Promising

The Port City of St. John’s was busy throughout the 2012 cruise season with 15 cruise ships and 19,558 visitors (13,318 passengers, 6,240 crew) travelling to St. John’s.

“This was an exciting cruise season in St. John’s,” says Mayor Dennis O’Keefe, Chairman of the Cruise St. John’s Committee. “For me, the highlight of the season had to be when we had the Artania and an unexpected visit from the Emerald Princess on the same day, which brought more than 6,000 visitors to our City at the same time.”

The 2012 cruise season began in St. John’s on May 13 with the inaugural arrival of the Crystal Serenity on its transatlantic cruise from New York to Dover, England. The season concluded with Adventure Canada’s Clipper Adventurer, which used St. John’s as a home port for an island circumnavigation cruise on Oct. 11. 

Of the 15 cruise ships which visited the Port City of St. John’s, 10 visits, including five inaugural, were made by vessels on transatlantic itineraries including St. John’s for in-transit port calls. The Clipper Adventurer and Akademik Ioffe both used St. John’s as a home port or turn around port for expedition cruises in the region.

2013 Looking Forward
Preliminary estimates for cruise visitation to St. John’s in 2013 shows 14 cruise visits bringing 23,041 visitors, which is a 17.8 per cent increase in cruise visitors over 2012 and a 51.4 per cent growth rate over the 15,220 cruise visitors reported in 2011.

“St. John’s has so much to offer visitors it is no wonder that we continue to see more cruise visitors coming to our City year-after-year,” says Mayor O’Keefe. “Our award winning port welcome is a highlight for all of our visitors and our Cruise St. John’s partners ensure that welcome is carried throughout the City for all of our visitors. Our Ambassador program also provides visitors with the information they need to get the most out of a visit to our City and we will be recruiting for this program in early 2013.”
 
New for the 2013 cruise season is the National Geographic Explorer ship in partnership with Lindblad Expeditions, which will use St. John’s as a home port for two Atlantic Canada itineraries. Twelve vessels will utilize St. John’s as an in-transit port, while two will use the port for home porting activity.   Holland America, Princess, AIDA, Phoenix and Silversea will return in 2013, while after a 10-year absence, Carnival will have its ship the Legend visit St. John’s.

For further information:
Jennifer Mills
Communications Officer
City of St. John's
Phone: (709) 570-2037
Cell: (709) 690-7586
E-mail: jmills@stjohns.ca

Dennis O'Keefe
Mayor
Chairman, Cruise St. John's Committee
City of St. John's
Phone: (709) 576-8477
E-mail: dokeefe@stjohns.ca