Québec provides $900,000 funding for Cruise the Saint Lawrence

The funding was announced at Monday night's opening dinner of the Canada/New England Cruise Symposium in Québec City by Amélie Dionne, government assistant for tourism, Tourism Ministry of Québec.

This followed the day's earlier news of Canada's first international winter cruises to take place on the Saint Lawrence in early 2025, operated by Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot.

René Trépanier, executive director of Cruise the Saint Lawrence, called the funding 'a great plus,' adding that Québec Tourism found his association's mission 'fits beautifully' with the province's 2035 strategic tourism plan.

Record more than 200 attendees

During the dinner at Le Château Frontenac. Trépanier welcomed a record more than 200 attendees to the 23rd Canada/New England Cruise Symposium, which will focus on sustainable development and, for the first time, includes ports of the Great Lakes, 'the source of our great river.'

Mario Girard, CEO of symposium host Port of Québec, said cruising has a $700m economic impact in the region adding: 'But we can do even better.' While the fall foliage season is 'a great time to cruise, it's even better in the summer so we have a lot of potential.' And winter cruising adds even more.

The Port of Québec is assessing shore power in line with decarbonization goals but needs public funding to support that, Girard said.

Cruisers are 'mega-influencers' 

For his part, Robert Mercure, director, Destination Québec Cité, thanked the cruise industry attendees for what they do to 'put Québec City on the map internationally.

'... We want you to discover our food, culture and heritage. I look at you as mega-influencers, as ambassadors. We love having this event here.'

From left, Cruise the Saint Lawrence Chairman Yves Gilson (Port of Montréal), CLIA's Kelly Craighead, Port of Québec's Mario Girard, Destination Québec Cité's Robert Mercure, Port of Québec's Marie-Andreé Blanchet and Cruise the Saint Lawrence Executive Director René Trépanier

Kelly Craighead's bucket-list trip

Certainly Kelly Craighead, president/CEO of Cruise Lines International Association, qualifies as a mega-influencer.

Addressing the symposium on what she called her bucket-list first trip to Québec City, Craighead called her experiential tour of Old Québec that afternoon 'one of the greatest things I've done this summer.'

'The idea there's now four-season cruising in this region is remarkable,' she said.

$4.2b economic impact

The CLIA chief noted cruising had a $4.2b economic impact in Canada during pre-pandemic 2019, including more than $1b in Québec and Atlantic Canada.

Turning to sustainability and decarbonizaton, Craighead applauded the regional ports that provide or are considering shore power.

She encouraged destinations to partner with CLIA to help inform policy-makers how 'cruise lines are leading the way' in investment and innovation to meet aggressive decarbonization goals and to 'help us tell these stories in a way that makes sense in your community.

'... We are trying to position CLIA as a solution-provider,' she said.