Cruise ships have charted a return course to Nanaimo with two visits scheduled for the 2024 cruise season.

The first of the vessels, MV Seabourn Odyssey, of Seabourn Cruise Lines, will dock May 9 to mark the start of what Andrea Thomas, Port of Nanaimo鈥檚 manager of cruise development, said she hopes is the start of a growing cruise ship business in coming years.

鈥淕iven that we haven鈥檛 seen a cruise ship here since 2019, it鈥檚 pretty exciting,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e starting over again, really, and it鈥檚 a great opportunity to show what Nanaimo is and what we can do and who we are and why we鈥檙e great and why we have a unique product offering in terms of, not specifically the port, but the city itself and the excursion opportunities.鈥�

Thomas noted Nanaimo鈥檚 local features, such as its craft breweries, as well as its location as a hub for excursions, such as winery tours, Cathedral Grove and other attractions the central Island has for tourism.

She said expanding tourism is important for communities and cruise ships are good vehicles for that.

鈥淪omething like one in three passengers on a cruise ship is testing destinations and they鈥檒l return to places that they鈥檝e enjoyed during their port of call, so it鈥檚 future growth for tourism, as well, even though they may only be here a few hours on a given day, so the likelihood of many of the guests returning is high,鈥� Thomas said.

She said the initial focus will be on drawing the pocket cruise vessels. Seabourn Odyssey accommodates about 450 passengers and the Oceania Cruises鈥� MS Regatta, scheduled to arrive Aug. 26, carries about 830 passengers.

鈥淚 think we can better show them what Nanaimo is and has to offer than we could if we had the 5,000- or 6,000-passenger gigantic cruise ships,鈥� Thomas said. 鈥淲e can accommodate those too, but that would be a pretty big shock to our city鈥檚 infrastructure, 5,000 people on a ship unloading all at once. Hopefully, in the future we can build up on that and we can take bigger ships, but for now we鈥檙e targeting those pocket luxury ships.鈥�

The port already has visits from four ships booked for the 2025 season and more booked for 2026.

Thomas said she鈥檒l be attending Seatrade Cruise Global, the world鈥檚 largest cruise ship trade conference, next month, and has a number of meetings set up with cruise lines to draw more traffic to Nanaimo.

鈥淭he goal is to grow it and keep growing, so we鈥檒l see what happens. Wish us luck,鈥� Thomas said.

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