Fraser Island to welcome first cruise ships

Fraser Island to welcome first cruise ships

Fraser Island, the world’s largest sand island, will see the arrival of two cruise ships next year as P&O Cruises added the southern Queensland destination to its program.

The cruise line’s two newest vessels, Pacific Aria and Pacific Eden, will be the first members of the P&O fleet to visit the World Heritage-listed island. Pacific Aria will pop in on April 3 as part of a roundtrip itinerary from Brisbane with Pacific Eden to then swing by on December 12 as part of a roundtrip cruise from Sydney.

“Fraser Island’s Indigenous inhabitants gave their island home a name that means paradise and our cruise passengers will have the opportunity to discover this for themselves,” Carnival Australia chief executive Ann Sherry said.

“Visiting Fraser Island by cruise ship with its 184,000 hectares of diversity from pristine beaches, lake and sand cliffs to rainforests will be a unique experience for our cruise travellers.”

The opening up of Fraser Island as a cruise destination comes off the back of similar P&O announcements regarding Mooloolaba, Hamilton Island and Gladstone with Queensland Minister for Tourism Kate Jones welcoming the wave.

“We’ll now see more visitors enjoying Fraser Island’s natural beauty, which is great news for local tourism operators,” she said. “We hope that the incredible experiences visitors will have on Fraser Island make them want to return to Queensland again.”

Both cruises are being conducted in conjunction with the popular Kingfisher Bay Resort which offers a range of eco-friendly four wheel drive tours of the island along its beaches and 1500km of tracks enabling visitors to discover its spectacular wildlife and scenery.

Group general manager David Hay said the arrival of P&O represented an “exciting opportunity” for Fraser Island and the region to tap into recent domestic cruise growth.

“The Fraser Coast has some incredible products and experiences to offer our domestic and international visitors and it is pleasing to see this potential being recognised by major companies like P&O Cruises,” he said.

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