This year’s cruise-ship season wraps up on Wednesday with a visit by the Norwegian Jewel, set to be in Victoria from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with more than 2,300 passengers.
The season, which began on April 3 with the arrival of the Norwegian Bliss, saw 316 ship visits with more than 700,000 passengers disembarking.
That’s slightly down from last year’s 326 visits, although the number of passengers remained steady because some larger ships visited this year, said Robert Lewis-Manning, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
The Explora I and Celebrity Edge made their first calls to Victoria this year, as the Alaska cruise ship market continues to grow in popularity.
“We hear positive feedback from passengers all the time about Victoria,” Lewis-Manning said Monday, adding the cruise-ship sector brings $130 million annually to the regional economy. “The stories are positive from an economic impact perspective.”
The sector is responsible for 800 direct and indirect jobs in Greater Victoria, the harbour authority said.
One challenge for local businesses is that starting last year, ships have been sailing more slowly into port to reduce carbon emissions, resulting in arrivals later in the evening.
Lewis-Manning said adapting to the change might mean ensuring experiences are closer to Ogden Point, or providing more offerings in the evening. “Everybody’s giving it a lot of thought.”
Many cruise ships make their final stop in Victoria on their way home from Alaska and not all passengers disembark. This year and last each brought about 970,000 passengers, but only about 700,000 disembarked.
The 2025 season, which has 322 Victoria ship visits booked to date, starts March 6 with the Disney Wonder with 2,400 passengers. The final vessel is the Norwegian Joy on Oct. 26.
The Anthem of the Seas has the largest capacity of ships scheduled to pull in next year, at 4,419 passengers.
Local business organizations welcome the ships.
“Every cruise ship season now provides a substantial contribution to our regional economy and its workforce,” said Bruce Williams, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
“Of course, as with every industry, there are always challenges, especially around the environment. I think all of us take pride in our region’s well-deserved reputation for climate action leadership, and in the work being done locally by the cruise-ship industry to reduce its carbon footprint.”
Paul Nursey, chief executive of Destination Greater Victoria, said that under the harbour authority’s stewardship, “growth in cruise tourism has become an important economic driver for the capital region.”
He hopes cruise-ship visitors will want to return for a longer stay and see more of the region.
One key initiative for the harbour authority is creating Canada’s first port that’s co-managed with First Nations, Lewis-Manning said.
While the harbour authority’s board has always included First Nations representation, the plan is to move beyond that, he said.
“The principle behind this is that is that as an organization, we’ll be better making decisions together than separately,” he said. “It acknowledges that they are rights holders, that their historic presence and importance in the port of Victoria is real and that we have a joint commitment to both preserving that heritage, but also stewarding the harbour.”
Local First Nations visited Alaskan tribal corporations this year to learn what they’ve been doing in the tourism market in Alaska, he said.
The harbour authority has also launched a planning program to examine its assets, determine how they could be used in the future, and look at new opportunities, Lewis-Manning said.
Those could include the private sector, particularly given the cost of upgrading aging infrastructure from the breakwater up into the Inner Harbour, which Lewis-Manning figures could reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Now is the right time to figure out what our long-term path is, while we have a predictable and safe revenue source because we know we do need to diversify our revenue sources.”
Planning includes the long-discussed idea of bringing shore power to Ogden Point so vessels don’t have to run diesel generators while in port.
A business case was presented to the board in the summer but more information is needed before a decision is made, Lewis-Manning said.
The standard plan has been to run power from B.C. Hydro’s Topaz station but alternative ways of delivering electrification are being looked at as new technologies are being developed, he said.
That could include barges carrying large batteries that could recharged electrically or use of a lower-carbon fuel to recharge them.
