Tourism industry out $27 million with cruise ship cancellations, port says

P.E.I.'s tourism industry lost more than $27 million in direct earnings with the cancellation of the cruise ship season this year, the CEO of Port Charlottetown estimates. 

Mike Cochrane said cruise traffic makes up a little more than half of Port Charlottetown's business, and surveys suggest there are many people — about 65 per cent of "loyal" cruise customers — who say they will return to cruise travel once it resumes. 

"There's 35 per cent of maybe the other people that would say, 'yeah I might take a cruise,' and those are the kind of undetermined factor of whether or not they would certainly look at it in the future," he said.

"But 65 per cent are certainly a loyal customer base and they would go on a cruise tomorrow, according to our research."

The federal government isn't allowing any cruise traffic in the country until at least Oct. 31.

Cochrane said work on the second cruise ship berth has continued at the port, and he expects that docking area work will be finished by the end of August.

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