Cairns Port: The Cruise Ship Gateway to the Great Barrier Reef

Cairns' position as the international tourist gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics World Heritage rainforest has made the city one of Australia's most significant international visitor destinations, with the Cairns Airport's international terminal receiving direct flights from Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore, and the key source markets of the Asian travel industry that the reef and the rainforest attract. The international visitor economy that the airport supports sustains the tour operators, accommodation providers, and the hospitality sector that the visitor industry requires and that the city's economic health depends on more directly than most Australian regional cities.

The Cairns cruise ship terminal, receiving the large cruise ships that traverse the Great Barrier Reef in the itineraries that the Coral Sea cruise routes include, provides the port infrastructure for the cruise industry's contribution to the Cairns visitor economy. The cruise passengers who embark or disembark in Cairns, and those who come ashore for a day in port as the ship transits the reef, provide the concentrated visitor traffic that the city's tour operators, retail sector, and hospitality businesses design their services to capture.

The Reef Fleet Terminal on the Cairns Esplanade provides the departure point for the reef tours, dive charters, and the day trips to the pontoon platforms on the outer reef that the majority of Cairns visitors include in their itinerary. The terminal's management of the hundreds of vessels and thousands of passengers that move through it daily during the peak season is one of the more complex logistics operations in Australian tourism, the timing of vessel departures and the coordination of the various operators sharing the berths requiring the management systems that the terminal operates.

The environmental challenge of managing the tourism impact on the reef that the Cairns visitor economy depends on has been the subject of ongoing research and management innovation. The visitor management programs, the mooring buoy systems that prevent anchor damage, and the Environmental Management Charge that contributes to reef research and management from the revenue generated by visitor fees, represent the mechanisms by which the tourism industry attempts to sustain the resource that generates its revenue.

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