Silver Nova anchored at Esperance. Photo: Chloe Sipeki.
Another cruise ship anchored at Esperance this week bringing 700 or more passengers and crew ashore, providing a welcome boost to local revenues.
Sofia Schmets, the General Manager of The Quarters, alongside the Taylor Street Jetty, estimated that the Silver Nova passengers made up approximately a 30 percent rise in the patrons for Thursday February 13.
Like other Esperance hospitality providers, Ms Schmets said an increase in customers often hinges on good weather, but she commented that a steady stream of people had come in for snacks and drinks after Silver Nova moored.
“Business has been great, it’s been quite busy but steady at the same time,” she said, adding, “we did have quite a lot of people come in to enjoy the food.”
She said it was due to the proximity of The Quarters to the jetty that a lot of people came in, in what had been a “very successful day.”
The Quarters were already making staffing plans ahead of the arrival of the next ship to anchor at Esperance on Friday, February 28, Azamara Pursuit, she said.
Fellow hospitality industry specialist, Montie van der Sprong, the supervisor at Bistro Louis, said that they had offered a pre-planned buffet -type spread for the passengers and had also provided some catering as well.
“I think it’s a really nice way, a ‘new-ish way,’ to spread (the name of) Bistro Louis,” she said and that it was a “different” and “amazing” way of generating extra revenue.
“It’s extra business so it’s really nice.
“I think they came on (to the ship) in Melbourne and they’re ending up in Singapore, so it’s a lovely way of showing off Esperance and also Bistro Louis, in Esperance, and to give them a good way to remember us.”
The visits by the cruise ships to the Port of Esperance present a great, extra stream of revenue that adds a touch of general stability for outlets within the hospitality sector, Ms van der Sprong said, suggesting that seasonal lulls in hospitality revenue are nicely buoyed by them.
“Obviously, we are going out of the high season now and the holidays are done, again, so we felt that, being more quiet in town just in general, I think.”
“The main thing is that if you have a cruise ship coming in here like that, you have this certainty that you are going to have this fixed, extra stream of revenue coming in, and extra stream of profit.”
A spokesperson from the Esperance Museum in the Museum Village near Memorial Park said the tourism venue had observed a “constant flow of visitors” over the duration of the morning until just after lunchtime.
“I think it’s really great having the cruise ships coming to town, it’s a really good boost for tourism and the local businesses,” the spokesperson said.
Karrina Howard, who works with visiting cruise ship passengers regularly, said that it was a great opportunity for Esperance to showcase all it has to offer and that she would like to see more businesses engaging with the passengers after disembarkation.
“I feel like we could do more as a town when a cruise ship comes in, but it is interesting to know we have benefited today,” Ms Howard said.
She said that it would be great to know the impact of the nearly 700 people who were in town from around 8.30 onwards, “is it making a difference?”
