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Marketing propels Maine's PortlandSeatrade Insider • June 30, 2009Portland, Maine, which hosted 32 cruise calls in 2007 and 35 in 2008, is looking at 46 calls this season and already has booked 68 for 2010. Sandra Needham-Blackwood, cruise ship marketing director, expects to hit 80 calls next year when all is said and done. Marketing is driving the growth, she told Seatrade Insider. For the past four years, Needham-Blackwood's focus has been developing cruise calls for the Port of Portland and cultivating southern Maine as a cruise destination. Portland hosted the 2008 Canada/New England Cruise Symposium, exposing the region to executives from a host of lines, and Needham-Blackwood participates in industry events like Seatrade Cruise Shipping Miami and Cruise Lines International Association's cruise3sixty. Some 65,500 passengers are expected this season on ships from a wide range of operators including AIDA, American Canadian Caribbean Line, American Cruise Lines, Carnival, Celebrity, Deilmann, Fred. Olsen, Holland America, Norwegian Cruise Line, P&O Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Saga and Travel Dynamics. Cunard's Queen Victoria is booked for a maiden call on Sept. 29. Many of the same operators, plus Princess, Silversea and Crystal, among others, are scheduled in 2010. Portland offers two berthing stations: the 1,000ft Maine State Pier and the 600ft Ocean Gateway Terminal berth, which opened last year. Ocean Gateway's second phase development envisions the extension of that pier to 1,000ft. ###
The CruiseMaine Coalition in partnership with the Maine Port Authority and the communities of Bangor, Belfast, Boothbay Harbor, Bar Harbor, Bucksport, Camden, Eastport, Freeport, Kennebunk-Kennebunkport, Portland, Rockland and several Associate Members including Chase Leavitt & Co., Discover New England, Down East Magazine, FlyBangor, GetEtched, Maine & Co., Maine Office of Tourism, Maine Tourism Association, Maine Department of Transportation, Penobscot Bay & River Pilot’s Association, and the Washington County Commissioner’s Office works to promote these communities to the travel trade, travel media and cruise industry as attractive cruise destinations. We also provide the relative community and business support necessary for these areas to become and remain viable, productive cruise destinations while promoting cultural preservation and responsible tourism.
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