Halifax Port Authority Cancels 2020 Cruise Season
HALIFAX—The Halifax Port Authority has cancelled its entire 2020 cruise season in response to a federal ban on cruise ships coming into Canada.
Earlier today, Minister of Transport Marc Garneau announced a ban on any cruise ship that can carry more than 100 overnight passengers from entering Canada until Oct. 31.
That Oct. 31 deadline is well past the end of Halifax’s cruise season.
In a news release sent shortly after the announcement, Port of Halifax spokesperson Lane Farguson said the new rules “effectively mean there will be no cruise vessel calls in Halifax this year.”
Prior to today’s news, Halifax’s cruise season had officially been “deferred” until July 1. However, the Port of Halifax had already been planning for a worst-case scenario.
Earlier this month, Captain Allan Gray, the port’s president and CEO, said his team was planning for a summer season with zero cruise traffic.
“Our expectation and our budgeting is working on the fact that we won’t see a return of cruise [ships] in 2020,” Gray said at the Port of Halifax’s annual general meeting May 20.
“At this stage, I would have to say the outlook for cruise is quite bleak.”
In March, just before the federal government’s first temporary ban on cruise traffic, 208 ships were scheduled to dock in Halifax. Farguson said those ships would have brought more than 350,000 tourists to the city, and brought close to $80 million of economic activity.
Farguson said in today’s news release that the Port of Halifax “has been and will continue to work with partners across tourism in Nova Scotia to rebuild the cruise industry in Halifax and Atlantic Canada.”
“Together, we will weather this storm and prepare for brighter days ahead,” he said.