First cruise ship of year for Tongatapu

THE Dawn Princess, the first cruise ship to visit Tongatapu this year, arrived in the Nuku'alofa harbour this morning following early morning thunderstorms. The 77,000 tons cruise ship with over 1,000 passengers on board berthed at Queen Salote Wharf at 9:00am before departing at 5:00pm for Vava'u. The Dawn Princess from Australia is on a 35 days cruise that departed Sydney on April 3 and will visit other Pacific Island destinations such as the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii before May 8. The Ministry of Tourism is expecting 11 cruise ships to visit Tonga this year, a decline from the 23 that visited last year.