Belfast has celebrated a new cruise record after clocking up a record 1,250 cruise ship calls to the city since the first super vessel arrived in 1996. Now regarded as one of the UK and Ireland’s most vibrant and exciting city excursions for cruise visitors and spearheaded by Cruise Belfast, a partnership between Visit Belfast and Belfast Harbour, the city is also celebrating a record year for cruise ship calls this year, with 170 vessel visits bringing 250,000 tourists and generating around £20m for the local economy.
Officially marking the first visit of the Oceania Vista cruise ship and a fresh record for Belfast are (l-r) Mark Thompson, Tourism Northern Ireland, Colin McClements, Belfast Harbour, Maurice Frew, Visit Belfast, Lord Mayor of Belfast Cllr Ryan Murphy, Paul Baya from the Oceania Vista, Leo McParland, Hamilton Shipping and Gerry Lennon, Visit Belfast.