When Corner Brook, N.L., joined the cruise ship circuit
By 1980, the city was finding that cruise ships were a good way to land tourists
New York, Boston, Montreal, Quebec and ... Corner Brook, N.L.
The latter city was added to the list of destination stops for luxury-liner passengers for the first time in 1979, and it was popular enough with passengers that the same ship made a return visit the next year.
As John McQuaker explained to The National in August 1980, the Newfoundland tourism industry faced "one basic problem — getting people to the island."
'Seeing how pretty it is'
"Organized bus tours" were one method, he continued, but cruise ships were an effective way to "bring in a large number at one time."
McQuaker spoke with passengers who were on a three-week voyage from England, taking in stops in the aforementioned big cities before they reached Newfoundland.
The 11-hour Corner Brook stop, he discovered, was "just the tonic after a few days in the big city."
Passengers were enjoying their glimpse of Newfoundland.
Some stayed in the city, as one woman described her morning, "having a look around, seeing how pretty it is and going into the stores to buy something to take home to England."
There were, however, opportunities to leave town for a few hours, and as much as "$30,000 worth" of tours had been booked, even before the ship had arrived, McQuaker said.
One such tour was to the fishing village of York Harbour, for a "Newfoundland garden party."
And according to one passenger, the trip was worth the effort.
'The real Canada'
"When we were in Quebec we felt as if we could have been in Paris because it was just the same sort of place," he said.
"But this we thought was the real Canada."
The arrival of the cruise ship was enough of a boost to the economy, McQuaker reported, that more were booked for the next year.
