| NCL eyes more Australian growth

NORWEGIAN Cruise Line’s exec vp int’l business development Harry Sommer told Cruise Weekly the cruise line was “optimistic” it would send a ship down under for the 2019/20 season.

Speaking in Sydney on Sun on board Norwegian Jewel during the ship’s first visit for its inaugural local homeport season, Sommer highlighted the ship’s deployment as “one of the big successes for us this year”.

“I’d say that anytime something is successful, the likelihood that we’re going to repeat it is great,” he continued, noting the deployment details for 2019/20 would be revealed in Dec.

Sommer also hinted an announcement was in the works in the technology space, explaining “we’re clearly looking at things like what Royal and Disney did”.

Norwegian’s biggest challenge in Australia was the availability of ports, he said.

“If I could wave my magic wand and triple the port capacity in Sydney, I would give you a different answer…there would be no reason why we couldn’t take multiple ships, bigger ships, different ships.”

Sommer voiced support for the cruise reference group’s recommendation of Garden Island as the preferred location for a second cruise terminal in Sydney (CW 12 Oct), urging the NSW Government to follow through and turn it into a plan.

NCL has experienced a 50% growth in year-over-year sales in 2017, when compared to 2016.

“There are not very many places in the world where we could be up 50% in sales so we’re very happy with that,” he said.

More from Norwegian Cruise Line on page three.