After a two-year hiatus, cruise ships will be returning to Saint John in just over two months.
The draft schedule released Tuesday has 69 cruise ship visits between May and November.
Craig Estabrooks, president and CEO of Port Saint John, calls it an exciting day for the region.
“My mind immediately goes to the people that are employed on the waterfront, and more specifically in the tourism sector. This is a very important milestone to see ships planning on coming back here in 2022,” Estabrooks said in a phone interview.
Comparing this year’s cruise ship season to previous years, Port Saint John saw 63 cruise calls, 65 in 2017, 69 in 2018, and 79 in 2019. The port was preparing for 90 ships in 2020 before the season was scrapped due to the pandemic.
While this year’s first cruise ship is scheduled to arrive May 4, officials said 85 per cent of the ships are scheduled to visit after Labour Day.
The schedule currently has 10 double-ship days and five triple-ship days during the fall, according to Port Saint John.
“Anyone that has seen those days before know that it really transforms our city and region when you have that many people in a small community like we all live in,” said Estabrooks.
“To see that injection of energy and enthusiasm when the passengers come into town, it’s remarkable to see.”
If all 69 ships are full, as many as 179,000 people could visit the Port City during the six-month cruise ship season.
However, Estabrooks said total passenger numbers remain a bit of an unknown at this point in the game.
The port said while it anticipates seeing a return to fuller ships as time goes by this season, reduced passenger counts should be expected on each ship as overall capacities rebuild and stabilize globally.
“We expect a very healthy passenger count and in the coming weeks and months, as more rules are ironed out, I think we’ll have a better idea of what the capacity is going to be on the ships,” he said.
While many will welcome the return of cruise ships to Saint John, others will have concerns amid the ongoing pandemic.
Estabrooks said the cruise industry has developed some of the most stringent safety and operational protocols.
“One example is the passengers have to be fully vaccinated, so much like many modes of travel around the world, the cruise lines have focused a lot on the science and vaccination,” he said.
“From a health and safety standpoint, we are going to do everything possible as a port to mitigate any of the concerns and risks that are out there.”
Before the pandemic, cruise activity provided about $68 million to the province’s economy each year along with nearly 400 full-time and part-time jobs.
