Key takeaways:
- Viking Octantis will call on Louisbourg on April 21.
- The Viking Octantis will be the foremost cruise ship to visit a dock in Atlantic Canada.
The season’s first cruise ship will be anchoring in Cape Breton on Thursday, following a two-year suspension carried on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Port of Sydney, the Viking Octantis will be the first cruise vessel to visit a dock in Atlantic Canada since the end of 2019. The ship will anchor in Louisbourg on April 21.
The Port of Sydney has 83 planned cruises with almost 180,000 passengers this year.
Transport Canada declared sweeping changes and rules when the pandemic started in 2020. For numerous businesses and tourist operators, the loss of two seasons resulted in significant financial failures.
“It’s come to an end, and we are feeling the pinch,” stated Marlene Usher, CEO of the Port of Sydney.
Read more: Severe rain and strong winds are expected for N.S. and N.B.
“It’s a welcome back.”
The Port of Sydney lost nearly $330,000 the previous year.
Usher said the port depends heavily on the cruise industry, with most income coming from ships calling on Sydney. Cruise traffic spends dividends for businesses in the downtown region and surrounding counties. Usher told 2022 probably won’t be a banner year, but it will begin to recover some wounds. “It also suggests that the economic effect, which for Cape Breton was about $56 million, will come back to Cape Breton,” she said.
New businesses have opened in the downtown location expecting the new NSCC Marconi campus. But the foot traffic that arrives off the cruise vessels is a bonus.
“So I think regarding the bookstore, the grocery shop, there’s a maternity shop, there’s so multiple new businesses, restaurants, what have you in that downtown center who haven’t been able to experience the advantages of the cruise industry,” stated Amanda McDougall, mayor for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Source – cbc.ca
