Partner Article

Cruise industry remains buoyant say port bosses

A CRUISE ship laden with 2,000 American tourists docks into the region today, marking the latest indicator of a £33m-a-year industry which looks set to continue riding the waves of a stormy economic climate well into 2011.

The Dutch-operated Westerdam will become one of 25 cruise calls at North Shields in 2010 as seafarers come to sample the delights of Newcastle and Northumberland.

And, despite the threat of a double-dip recession and a redundancies at home and abroad, there are already a further 19 calls booked in for 2011.

Navigating its way closely behind the 285m-long Westerdam – which is currently on a 12-day cruise of the UK – is the Artemis, that will bring 1,200 largely British travellers to the North East next Wednesday.

According to the Port of Tyne, cruise and ferries business contributes £33m in tourist spend in the region, while the industry as a whole is on target to double in size in the next 10 years.

A statement from the organisation said: “As figures from the Passenger Shipping Association show, 1.53 million UK holidaymakers took a cruise last year despite a challenging year for the travel industry.

“Fourteen new ships are to be launched this year and passenger numbers are on course to rise further still to two million by 2014.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .