By
Rebecca Gibson |
Canada’s port of Montréal is to handle 92,000 passengers and crew members, as well as 73 cruise ships in 2015, an increase of around 30% from 2014.
The predictions follow on from Montréal’s successful 2014 cruise season, which saw a total of 71,044 passengers and crew members transit through the cruise terminal. This marked a 2% rise from the 69,966 passengers and crew members recorded in the 2013 season.
The 2014 season, which opened on 17 May and ended on 11 November, was Montréal’s longest to date and reached its peak in October when more than 9,300 passengers and four ships arrived at the cruise terminal over five days.
“The results of the 2014 season and the projections for next year indicate that Montréal has become a major draw not only in the international cruises market, but also for that of the Great Lakes,” said Sylvie Vachon, president and CEO of the Port of Montréal. “All ports of call upstream and downstream of Montréal will benefit from this, which generates important economic spin-offs for the city and for the entire province.”
To help boost the cruise industry in Montréal, the port established a Cruise Committee in 2009. The committee will continue to invest in improving the city for cruise tourists.
“The positive results of the end of the 2014 season and the predictions for 2015 indicate that we are on track to achieving the ambitious objectives we set for ourselves when we created the committee,” said Yves Lalumière, president and CEO of Tourisme Montréal. “Obviously, the cruise market will stay central to our strategic planning and, as a result, the Alexandra Pier renovation project is very important to us. The increase in this clientele supports our 2014-2018 strategic plan that the organisation adopted before its members at the beginning of this year, and we will continue to work in this direction.”