Tourism event gets in the spirit for ferry’s arrival

THE Spirit of Tasmania will arrive in Geelong for the first time in just over a month, and some of Geelong’s tourist operators have learned about some of the possibilities to come.

Tourism Greater Geelong and the Bellarine (TGGB) hosted a lunch at Novotel Geelong featuring TT-Line managing director and chief executive officer Bernard Dwyer.

The final sailing from Melbourne’s Station Pier will depart on the evening of October 22, and the first sailing to the dedicated new quay in Geelong will arrive on the morning of October 23.

Speaking to the crowd, Mr Dwyer said the new facility included a dedicated drop-off/pick-up zone and a marshalling area for 600 cars, including 300 cars under cover.

“For us, that’s a big change from Station Pier, so that’ll be a big improvement for our passengers,” Mr Dwyer said.

He said the service had new ferries on order that were both longer and wider, so the new quay would have to handle both the old and new vessels for 12 months.

“It’s been quite an engineering feat.”

Covering a distance of about 448km (or about 292 nautical miles), the crossing between Geelong and Devonport will take between nine and 11 hours.

“We’re so excited to come here,” Mr Dwyer said. “Forward bookings are very, very strong and they’re only going to get stronger.”

He said forward bookings for the Spirit of Tasmania were up 35 per cent on the previous record period, and the ferry service was fully booked for caravans into Tasmania until the end of January.

“People are out there travelling.

“I’m told there’s a 12-month wait period [to buy] new caravans and campervans, so that shows the demand on the market.”

At the lunch, insights agency Hall & Partners also presented findings from the qualitative report TGGB commissioned, titled “Understanding the Spirit of Tasmania Traveller”.