Cruise Down Under (CDU) has announced that the 2013 Cruise DownUnder conference will be held in Cairns.

Ports North, Business Events Cairns & Great Barrier Reef, and Tourism Queensland collaborated to bid for the conference that is expected to bring more than 120 delegates to Cairns for three days of meetings, presentations and networking next year. Among the delegates will be senior executive from the world’s cruise ship companies.

The announcement was made as the 2012 conference wound up in Hobart CDU is the peak cruise industry association. Its members represent regional ports, national and state tourism agencies, shipping agents and inbound tour operators. The association is growing and developing the Australia Pacific region as one of the world's leading cruise destinations and providing opportunities for ongoing economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Ports North Chairman, Brett Moller, welcomed the announcement and said this was a great opportunity for Cairns to showcase the region to key cruise industry representatives. Cairns remains a premier cruise destination and it’s important that we continue working with tourism and the cruise industry to grow ship visitations to the Tropical North region.

Rob Giason, CEO of TTNQ said the Tropical North Queensland region attracted more than 80 cruise ship visits to the ports of Cairns, Yorkeys Knob, Port Douglas, Cooktown and Thursday Island in the 2011/12 season and stakeholders are working to attract more cruise ships to the region. Our longer term objective is to establish ‘home porting’ in Cairns to attract pre and post touring of our region.