LUNENBURG - A cruise ship committee has been established in Lunenburg in an attempt to attract more tourist activity to the town.

 Deputy Mayor Jamie Myra, who also serves as president of the Lunenburg Board of Trade, told council last week that the committee has met twice to date and is already making strides within some cruise-ship circles.

 "We are moving forward with some initiatives, we've made some inroads in the Atlantic Canada Cruise Association to start," he said.

 Local businessman Bill Towndrow had urged the board of trade at their annual meeting to seriously look at joining the association in order for the town to get its name out to the people involved in the industry which would generate more cruise-ship activity to the port.

 While cost factors have at present resulted in the committee stopping short of joining that organization, the deputy mayor said they are looking at different avenues to fund their membership and are making connections with provincial entities involved in the industry.

 "There is one group going this week to the North American cruise conference in Miami and they are going to be talking about Lunenburg at that venue," he said, adding that the town is "definitely on the map" following the successful visit of the Fred Olsen Cruise Lines' 43,500 ton M.S. Balmoral which visited Lunenburg last October.

 "Everybody really enjoyed that, so we're hoping this definitely moves forward," Deputy Mayor Myra said.

 He said the cruise ship association will be holding its annual conference in Saint John, New Brunswick in June and committee members have been told that if the town "really wants to be a player we have to be at that conference."

 Preliminary plans are for the deputy mayor to attend on behalf of the town and the board of trade and he will be joined by Angela Saunders, manager of the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.

 "The committee has been very active, we have lots of people who have been attending the meetings and we have some experience there with some who are dealing with cruise ships at [Halifax's] Pier 21 when they come in. I think it's going to move forward in a positive manner," he said. "Hopefully we'll get some more visits [but] I don't think we're going to see any true results until probably two years down the road."

posted on 02/02/10