Cruise Belfast – the partnership between Visit Belfast and Belfast
Harbour – has announced that 2016 will be the busiest cruise season in
the city’s history with over 145,000 passengers and crew due to visit,
representing a 26 per cent increase in visitor numbers compared with
2015.
- Several cruise operators have significantly
increased the number of times they plan to call at Belfast this year.
UK based Cruise & Maritime Voyages is scheduled to call a total of
eight times following the successful single call of its cruise ship the
MV Magellan in 2015. - Fred Olsen Cruise Line has also increased the number of its calls from seven in 2015 to a total of 11 visits in 2016.
- The
larger ships are also strongly represented with US based Princess
Cruises continuing to show strong support for Belfast and Northern
Ireland with a total of 11 large cruise ships due to call carrying a
total of 53,000 visitors. - Belfast Harbour will play host to 81
cruise calls in 2016, carrying passengers from around the world with the
cruise industry’s best known operators once again scheduling Belfast
including Princess Cruise, Celebrity Cruise and P&O.
Joe
O’Neill, Belfast Harbour’s Commercial Director, said: “This is a
fantastic announcement for Northern Ireland’s tourism industry with
thousands of first time visitors getting the chance to sample the
region’s great scenery, attractions, warm welcome and hospitality. In
the past five years we have almost doubled the number of cruise ships
calling into Belfast which is a major achievement and a tremendous vote
of confidence in Northern Ireland’s tourism offer. Most of the major
lines operating in western Europe now call at Belfast and it’s
particularly pleasing that year on year they have increased the number
of calls they make to the city.”
Gerry Lennon, Chief Executive of
Visit Belfast added: “The huge popularity of attractions such as
Titanic Belfast and the Giant’s Causeway coupled with the international
appeal of Game of Thrones and our world-class golf courses is helping
profile Northern Ireland’s appeal as a destination, and the feedback
from cruise operators is that Belfast remains one of their passengers’
most popular ports of call. Visit Belfast will continue to work with
Belfast Harbour and the city’s tourism providers to ensure that
passengers have every opportunity to see the very best that Belfast has
to offer.”
Among the ships calling next year will be Cunard’s
Queen Elizabeth, launched in 2010 at a cost of £350m. The largest
vessel due is Princess Cruise’s Regal Princess with 5,100 passengers and
crew, whilst the smallest will be All Leisure’s Hebridean Princess with
just 74. The first visitor will be the MV Astoria in March as part of a
British Isles cruise.
August 2016 will be the city’s busiest
cruise month ever with 26 calls expected. During the year there will
also be a number of cruises embarking from the port.
In recent
years cruise lines operating western European itineraries have been
introducing larger and longer vessels which require deeper channels and
additional quay space. To accommodate these next-generation cruise
ships and the increased popularity of Belfast, Belfast Harbour has plans
to develop a new, dedicated cruise facility.