Cruise ships make new port a travel destination

Some skeptics questioned the logic of Detroit’s new Public Dock and Terminal, which opened at a $21.5 million cost this summer on the banks of the Detroit River. According to this new story in the Freep, the new dock is already paying off in an influx of well-heeled tourists. The number of cruise ships planning stops at the Dock in 2012 is 13 — a massive increase from the two ships who anchored in Detroit in 2011. At least 2,500 luxury tourists bound for the Great Lakes will set foot in the city next year.

Excerpt:

“What’s terrific about the new dock and Detroit is the proximity to the upper part of the Great Lakes,” said Chris Conlin, president of Great Lakes Cruise Company in Ann Arbor, which markets the cruises. “I believe the new port in Detroit is the reason the Yorktown is sailing out of Detroit and not Windsor or Toronto.”

Anchors away here!