Dr Deborah Lee-Talbot
P&O Cruises, one of Australia’s most well-known travel companies, will cease trading in March 2025. Folding into its parent company, Carnival Australia – itself a subsidiary of the American company Carnival Corporation – the end of P&O cruises leaves behind decades of soft diplomacy and cultural exchange between Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Since 1932, vessels from the P&O fleet have sailed tourists across the waters surrounding Australia, New Zealand Aotearoa, and the Pacific Islands. On the decks of a P&O cruise ship, travellers have sipped cocktails, danced the night away, or planned a beach day for port stops on tropical beaches. P&O cruises offered an affordable means for travellers to experience a decadent time on the Pacific Islands upon “Fair Star, the Fun Ship.”
Yet these cruises also offered an unexpected but crucial opportunity for Australia to display soft diplomacy in the Pacific. P&O cruises brought the people of Australia and PNG together for social and cultural encounters and reinforced the pre-existing historical narratives that connected Australia to PNG.
P&O pioneered cruising in the Pacific when Papua was still Australia’s territory, and passengers onboard approached Papuan villages as an adventure within Australia’s ‘own district’. In 1935, passengers aboard the Maloja played tennis in their whites in between visits to Papuan villages, where they watched children play cricket and local dances being performed.
For at least a decade, P&O entertainment has featured academic lectures detailing the region’s histories. I have lectured on three cruises across the waters of Aotearoa New Zealand, Vanuatu and PNG, sharing my knowledge on topics ranging from Australian and PNG relations during World War Two, to Pacific Islanders experiences of decolonisation and independence. Occasionally, Australian travellers have approached me after lectures to share their treasured memories of experiences in the Pacific, connecting Australian and Pacific communities and strengthening ties across cultures.
Many P&O travellers of today have a keen interest in the Pacific. Some were raised as missionary children in Papuan villages during Australia’s colonial administration, which ended in 1975. Returning in their 60s and 70s is an opportunity to show their families where they were raised, sharing nostalgic memories of sporting activities, religious events, and the local children who played with them. Other travellers are drawn by an interest in Second World War history of the region, where Australian forces repelled Japanese assaults at Milne Bay and the Kokoda Track. The landscape of war haunts these passengers’ travels: they share memories of fallen family members, or stories of the king tides that washed up unexploded ordnances on Papuan beaches.
P&O cruises also offered the opportunity to learn about Papua New Guinea today. Port visits allowed tourists to support local ambitions. At Alotau, the Milne Bay Province capital on the south-eastern coast, a visit to shore included visiting markets, the local museum, and a handful of villages. From 2005, a formal tour guide arrangement in Alotau employed locals to give shore-tours to hundreds of visitors yearly. Ticket prices contribute to local infrastructure and provide an incentive for younger generations of Papuans – who increasingly receive a formal education – to stay in their area. For the people of Alotau, cruise ship tourism offers a sustainable industry beyond agriculture, mining and fishing.
In recent years, the PNG government has invested substantially in cruise ship tourism and run campaigns promoting cruises as an ideal way to see the island’s beauty and meet its locals. In 2013, cruise ships were integrated into the Government’s employment strategy, with improved port facilities, shore excursion development, and visa fees waived for cruise passengers. By 2015, more people arrived by cruiseships than by air, and an Economic Impact Study claimed that the docking of a cruise ship in PNG brought an average of $ 94,461 to the economy.
Papua New Guinea’s Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) reported that ‘90 per cent of revenue from coastal tourism operators comes from cruising’, with beneficial flow-on effects on healthcare, education, and employment. According to a report from Business Advantage PNG (2015), around 200 people found new work opportunities in locations where cruise ships docked.For the PNG government, P&O was a profitable relationship. The future of tourism in the region was brighter than the Port Moresby sun.
Australians were significant contributors to this tourism market. Over 800,000 Australian citizens chose to cruise the Pacific in 2015, and by the mid-2010s Australians made up fifty per cent of all cruise travellers to PNG. In 2023, PNG Prime Minister James Marape visited the Australian Parliament and reflected on how Australians ‘helped shape and build my country.’
P&O vessels have become important symbols of PNG development, natural beauty, and its connection to Australia. In 2018, PNG hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), with visiting delegates from 21 countries. PNG utilised three P&O vessels docked at Port Moresby to provide accommodation and rest to APEC attendees. The use of P&O ships at APEC as a symbol of Papua New Guinea demonstrates how the long-lasting tourism relationship had developed into strong economic and political connections.
The merging of P&O with the Carnival Australia brand may mark an end to decades of cultural exchange and soft diplomacy in the shadow of a cruise ship. As the P&O brand is retired, the Carnival brand will need more than themed dance parties and branded cocktail flavours to smooth its way into the region. There are changes to the cruise ship port stops on the horizon. The cruises to Alotau will be cut by 50 per cent by 2026, with only two stops scheduled, leaving a financial vacuum for villages across the island. Without the certainty of affordable travel from Carnival vessels, the shared histories and soft diplomacy developed over generations may be forgotten.
