The cruise sector has “huge potential” for UK tourism, according to industry body CruiseBritain.
The body is seeking to support potential growth in cruise ship visits by launching a new-look website cruisebritain.org which brings together essential information on ports, service providers and itineraries.
Speaking ahead of cruise industry conference Seatrade Med in Cannes, CruiseBritain chairman Kate O’Hara said: “A typical 2,000-berth cruise ship can bring £170,000 into the local economy.
“This level of spend is significant and reaffirms our belief that the cruise market has huge potential for British tourism. 454,600 port of call visits (a rise of 7% year-on-year) were made to British ports but, across Europe, there were just under 24 million visits, so there’s a great market out there to be won.
“And other signs are also encouraging – the demand for cruises to northern Europe is growing faster than the Caribbean market.
“The British cruise market is anticipated to grow by 8% this year and, in addition, other European markets notably Germany, are also showing significant growth which further increases the opportunity for inbound tourism.”
Recent figures from the European Cruise Council’s annual economic impact study show that cruise tourism generates an average spend of €97 per passenger port visit for the local economy.
The expenditure from 733,300 embarkations and 454,600 port-of-call visits is boosted by the estimated €6.2million spent by around 516,500 crew arriving at UK ports.
Overall UK figures for 2009 show that the cruise industry generated €2,408 million in direct expenditure which represents 6.4% growth year-on-year. It supports an estimated 55,599 jobs.