Games ship hotel unlikely

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32564, 25 March 1971, Page 1

Games ship hotel unlikely

(By

K.J. McMENAMIN)

Cost is almost certain to rule out the possibility of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee chartering S cruise ship to serve as a floating hotel in Lyttelton Harbour during the period of the Games in 1974. The Games accommodation committee last month asked seven shipping companies if they would be able to make a ship available for charter at the time of the Games and in each case the

reply has been that the matter will be investigated. However, one answer included a speculation that the cost of accommodating a 1000 people on a vessel at Lyttelton would be between $20,000 and $24,000 a day. And this estimate does not include harbour and berthage dues, which presumably would have to be met by the Games organising committee. Such costs would almost certainly prove prohibitive as far as the organising committee was concerned, but there is still likely to be tourist vessels calling at Lyttel-

ton during the Games as part of specially-arranged cruises. Diis would take some of the pressure off the city in providing beds; on present estimates there might be as many as 50 per cent of the expected 10,000 .visitors accommodated in private homes.

Cruises to coincide with Olympic or Commonwealth Games have been successful in the past; in 1962 at Perth two of the five ships berthed at Fremantle were filled with New Zealanders. It is likely that not only shipping lines, but also the larger travel agencies will be

looking at the possibility of conducting cruises built round the Games. Australians would undoubtedly be ready takers for such cruises, and there should also be many interested in the United Kingdom. There are snags, however —not the least being the berthage which could be made available at Lyttelton. The Harbourmaster (Captain D. Holden) said yesterday that Lyttelton was first a commercial port. Two cruise ships might be the limit the port could have tied up at the one time. More, possibly, could be held at anchorage.