(17/10/2019) Fremantle's cruise ship season kicks off this weekend

The City of Fremantle’s Visitor Centre is prepped and ready to welcome the first ship of the new cruise ship season this weekend.

The Fremantle cruise ship season kicks off on Sunday with the arrival of 1800 passengers on board  Princess Cruises’ Sea Princess, which is due to arrive at 6:30am and depart at 11pm.

Visitor Information Services Team Leader Rosetta Letizia said the City of Fremantle will again be running regular shuttle buses to ferry cruise ship passengers from the Fremantle Passenger Terminal to Kings Square.

“The shuttle buses to and from the passenger terminal will be running every 20 minutes between 8am and 6pm,” Ms Letizia said.

“The City will also have a small army of helpful tourism ambassadors stationed at the passenger terminal, key locations around the city and roving the streets to provide a friendly welcome, hand out maps and offer tips and information to visitors.

“This cruise ship season our Fremantle ambassadors will also be providing an orientation walk to the city centre as alternative to the shuttle bus. Our guided walks will run every half an hour during the morning from 9am.”

Princess Cruises announced this year it would have a record-breaking 141-day deployment in Fremantle during the 2019-2020 Australian summer cruising season — the biggest financial commitment ever made to WA by a cruise brand.

Fremantle is scheduled to welcome a total of 29 cruise ship arrivals with more than 64,000 passengers for 2019-20 season between October and March.

Cruise shipping is an important part of the State's tourism industry, contributing $275.9 million to the WA economy in 2017-18 and supporting about 1130 jobs.

Taking better advantage of Fremantle’s position as a cruise ship port is a key focus of the City of Fremantle’s Destination Marketing Strategic Plan.

The City is also represented on the state government’s Victoria Quay Working Group, which was established to drive the redevelopment of Victoria Quay and the land surrounding the passenger terminal and improve the links between Victoria Quay and the Fremantle city centre.