The Port of Vancouver is the largest port on the west coast of North America for total cargo shipped, and the leading port in Canada for automobile imports, containers, and cruise ship passengers. To increase my knowledge about this important part of both the local economy and the area’s tourism industry I attended two events organized by the port authority.
Vancouver’s cruise ship industry
On Thursday June 27 I attended a presentation by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority about Vancouver’s thriving cruise industry. Carmen Ortega, Trade Development Manager at the Vancouver Port Authority educated the approximately 30 attendants about the current and future trends and developments within the cruise industry and at our port.
Vancouver is together with Seattle one of the two so-called home ports for Alaska cruises, meaning that, contrary to in-transit ports, people start and/or end their cruises in the city. This means that most travelers spend additional time and money in Vancouver before or after their cruise. This results in expenses like hotel accommodations, restaurants, local tours and excursions and shopping. Each cruise departing from Vancouver is estimated to contribute approximately three million dollar to the local economy.
After a strong decline in the number of cruise ship passengers departing from Vancouver following the 9/11 attacks, both the number of ship calls and cruise ship passengers are now on the rise again. Volumes have almost doubled since 2010, to the following numbers:
- 2018: 889,162 passengers, 241 port calls
- 2019: 1,077,000 passengers, 290 port calls (estimated)
- 2020: 1,200,000 passengers, 316 port calls (estimated)
The increase of cruise ship passengers coming to the city of Vancouver is the result of two trends. One trend the port authority is seeing, is the fact that more different cruise lines are now using Vancouver as the starting point of their cruise. In the year 2019 a total of 24 different cruise lines will dock at Canada Place. The second trend is a trend that is observed around the world, with cruise ships increasing in size. The largest ship to visit Vancouver this summer is the Royal Caribbean Ovation, which brought almost 4,200 travelers to our city in May. These larger ships and more ship calls mean that on peak days over 15,000 people now pass through the cruise ship terminal at Canada Place in downtown Vancouver.
To ensure an enjoyable experience for all of these visitors to our beautiful city the port authority has implemented a number of changes to improve the flow of people throw the terminal. New, and improved signage directs people to where they have to go, with blue signs directing departing cruise passengers towards the water, and green signs directing incoming passengers to the various modes of ground transportation.
A welcome change is the fact that roughly 50% of the ships docking at Canada Place are now capable of connecting to the shore power, instead of keeping their generators running. This does not only reduce their CO2 emissions, but also reduces the noise pollution, something that is known to benefit the whales and other marine wildlife in the area. Later this year the new Hurtigruten Roald Amundsen ship is expected to dock at Canada Place as part of its inaugurational voyage. This will be the first hybrid cruise ship in the world, emphasizing the cruise line’s commitment to sustainability.
The Vancouver Port Authority, in partnership with YVR Vancouver International Airport is furthermore working on a pilot project that will in the future hopefully allow cruise passengers transferring to the airport for a same day (international) flight to already print their airline’s luggage tag on the ship. This will then allow cruise ship passengers to disembark at the end of their cruise without their suitcase, and, if time permits, spend some time in our city before travelling to the airport. The suitcases will meanwhile be transferred to the airport and be handed over to the airline, meaning that the passenger will not have to recollect and drop off their suitcase before their departure flight.
Canada’s largest container terminal
On June 28 I participated in a tour of the container terminal in Delta, the largest of its kind in Canada, to learn more about the cargo business of the Port of Vancouver. On average eight cargo ships call on the Port of Vancouver every day, a relatively small number compared to the 92 ships that visit the port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port, each day.