Cruising is one of the fastest growing segments of the travel industry and being a year round cruise port can mean tens of millions of dollars. Two cities that are currently lacking in this area are aiming to bring cruise ships to their areas. Currently Savannah, Georgia and the port of Brownsville, Texas have commissioned studies to determine if bringing the cruise industry to their cities would be feasible.
Savannah, Georgia
Established in 1733 Savannah Georgia was once the colonial capital of Georgia and later the first capital of the state. Savannah is one of the great historic cities in this country and already attracts millions of visitors each year. Now Savannah is making a play for a cruise ship
City council has recently approved a bid for a feasibility study to determine how much it would cost to build a cruise terminal, how many passengers would sail from Savannah and the overall economic benefit of year round cruises. Currently the city of Jacksonville is the homeport for the Carnival Fascination but there is some uncertainty as to whether this agreement will continue beyond 2011.
In any case one thing that is certain is if Jacksonville isn’t serious about holding onto the Fascination than Savannah will gladly take the ship. In fact, I can’t think of any city that wouldn’t want 200,000 new people coming in and spending money each year.
While the Fascination is one of the older ships still in service I love the idea of sailing out of Savannah. Currently the itinerary of the Fascination features 4 and 5 day cruises visiting the Bahamas and Florida Keys. While the itinerary kind of sucks, spending 2 days in Savannah before leaving on a 4 day Bahamian cruise sounds pretty good.
Brownsville, Texas
A year ago a preliminary study was commissioned to determine whether or not the port had a chance of attracting a cruise line. The results are in and they must have been favorable because a second more comprehensive study will now take place. This new study will determine interest and the economic benefit of bringing a cruise ship to town.
Although the port would need to be improved, there are already facilities in place that can accommodate cruise ships. So, depending on how the survey turns out this idea could easily be fast-tracked. The main attraction to the Port of Brownsville would be the resort area of South Padre Island, the popular Spring Break and family vacation destination.
Assuming the study comes back positive, the goal is for the powers that be to attend the international Cruise Shipping Miami conference and trade show in March 2011 to make its presentation to cruise line owners and operators.
While it will still be some time before we know if either of these feasibility studies end up panning out, you have to applaud their efforts. Each cruise ship carrying 2000 passengers that embarks in your area means that 4000 passengers per week will be pouring dollars into the local economy. If those cruise passengers average a paltry 25 dollars it adds up to more than 5 million dollars flowing into the local economy each year As the amount of money each passenger spends goes up or the number of ships docking increase it’s easy to see why this is such a high priority.
Personally, I am indifferent on whether Brownsville gets a ship but I am crossing my fingers on Savannah.
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