Port Colborne is getting ready to welcome an influx of cruise ship tourists next year.
When cruise ships return next year Mayor Bill Steele plans to welcome the smaller 250 - 300 passenger vessels, but a much larger ship is also scheduled to dock in the city.
"Viking [Cruises] is bringing in a ship next year, it's getting ready and I think it's in its testing phase right now, but it will be the size of a lake ship," Steele says. "It's a little shy of 700 feet. It's as wide as it can get. And it will carry, I think, around 500 passengers."
To prepare for the tourists, the city is working with local businesses and consultants to create unique excursions.
Steele says the old works yard will be torn out and cleaned up for visitation. Eventually it will be developed into a community area and welcoming area for cruise ships.
Currently, the ships dock at the foot of West and Sugarloaf, but the larger vessels will need to go south to Dock 18. "The Seaway is in the midst of doing all the engineering and getting ready to repair some of the things in that area," Steele explains. "There's a cribbing system in there that's well over 100 years old and it's pretty rotted. The bollards where the ships tie up are pretty unsafe to use, so that's got to be done over the next year. We've been in conversation with the Seaway. We're trying to get both the province and the federal government involved in that." Steele believes it is a $20 million project for the Seaway.
Currently there are 19 cruise ships scheduled to stop by Port Colborne next year.
Click here to listen to Steele's full interview with Tim Denis.