Cruise News

The 2024/25 cruise-season began early this year with two cruise ships visiting during September. First, Silver Cloud – the Rolls Royce Cruise Ship – and then Coral Princess, with both visits featured here in the Shipping News.

Queen Elizabeth in Fremantle February 2019. Credit Deanna Shanahan

In October, Coral Adventurer will visit twice, followed in November by a royal flush with the fabulous Queen Elizabeth arriving as well as the Coral Princess returning.

December will also be busy, heralding the arrival of Westerdam, Le Jacques Cartier, and Azamara Pursuit. More on these two in a later post.

It also looks like Fremantle is becoming a ‘Super Host’ and the in-place for hosting conferences in 2025. First in May, the WA Tourism Conference, followed by the 2025 Australian Cruise Association (ACA) Annual Conference and AGM in September.

The Tourism Conference will bring together 250 industry delegates from across the state.

The ACA Conference is expected to attract more than 150 industry representatives from national and international cruise lines, state and national tourism agencies, shore excursion operators, port authorities and shipping agents. Top industry representatives will discuss port capabilities and learn about WA’s various onshore experiences.

Fremantle, we have to say, is the obvious city to host the Cruise Association Conference, having welcomed more cruise line passengers than any other WA port this year. It’s been 20 years since the Conference was held in Fremantle, when just 49 delegates attended. Next year it’ll be 3 times that number.

The hosting announcement was made at ACA’s 2024 Annual Conference in Adelaide this week. The
Conference will showcase Fremantle, Rottnest Island and Perth.

Both City of Fremantle and Fremantle Ports have expressed great support for the upcoming conferences.

The value of cruise tourism in Western Australia is estimated to have reached a record $333.5 million in the 2022/23 financial year. Fremantle I said to have accounted for $285.5 million of that economic impact with the port supporting 924 jobs and welcoming over 72,000 passengers and 9,000 crew members across 33 cruise visits.

Hosting the 2025 ACA Conference will mark a significant milestone for Western Australia and actively open doors to increased connectivity, advancing cruise access, business travel and leisure tourism opportunities.

This season Fremantle is expecting around 30 cruise ships in the 12 months between now and August 2025. Expect increased passenger arrivals and larger ships following the recent $35.5 million investment in wharf works at Fremantle Port. The passenger terminal has also had major fender upgrades to accommodate larger ships.

So folks, it looks like a busy cruise year ahead – as always Fremantle Shipping News will keep you posted on the cruise ships’ arrival and departure dates along with articles and fab photos.

STORY by Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is our Shipping Correspondent and also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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