Guernsey Press

Fewer cruise ships booked to visit the island this year

BOOKED cruise ship visits for this summer are down on last year so far, but the season is still looking good, Visit Guernsey has said.

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Cruise ship MSC Virtuosa anchored off St Peter Port last year. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 31837360)

The first schedule for this summer’s visits has been published, and showed there are 76 planned visits to Guernsey, 10 to Alderney, five to Sark and four to Herm.

A Visit Guernsey spokesman said that last year 130 had been due to visit during 2022, but 44 of the visits were cancelled for a variety of reasons, including weather and crew sickness.

‘Currently for 2023, there are 95 cruise ships scheduled to visit this year,’ he said.

‘It’s important to note that this is a first draft of this season’s schedule and is subject to change with more visits added.’

The first vessel due to visit is the 1,400-person capacity Ambiance, which is due to arrive from the Scilly Isles on 12 April.

The last of the season is due to be one of the biggest – the newly-launched 6,327-capacity Euribia. A number of large vessels are due to visit, with the 6,334-capacity Virtuosa making a couple of visits. The 4,272-capacity Regal Princess is set to become a regular sight in local waters, with 12 visits planned.

About 25 of the visits will be made by vessels designed to carry more than 2,000 people.

The largest vessels to visit the other Bailiwick Islands are the 535-capacity Ocean Majestic, which is set to visit Sark and Alderney, and the 420-capacity Hamburg, which is heading to Alderney.

‘The cruise industry remains a very important part of our tourism market and the 2023 schedule, as it currently stands, is promising,’ the Visit Guernsey spokesman said.

‘It is particularly encouraging to see that 12 of the 95 cruise ships scheduled to visit this year will be first-time visits. We are also expecting to see cruises operating at full capacity this year, after having sailed with reduced passenger numbers in recent years as part of their Covid mitigations.’

Cruise visits benefit the islands’ economies in a number of ways, from landing fees and tender services to excursions and shopping.

During the pandemic no cruise ships visited the island in 2020 or 2021 due to the Bailiwick’s tight restrictions. Worldwide, the cruise ship industry was hit hard by Covid, but there are hopes that this year the industry will finally return to 2019 levels.

The Visit Guernsey spokesman said the Bailiwick had a lot to offer cruise ship visitors.

‘The number of cruise ship visits tends to vary year to year as the industry is a very competitive market with more ports becoming available with the passage of time,’ he said.

‘However, the Bailiwick continues to have a very strong offering for the cruise market, as evidenced by the Bailiwick being named as the “Best UK & British Isles Port of Call” at the prestigious annual Cruise Critic industry awards last year.

‘We continue to see far more passengers coming ashore in the Bailiwick than the industry average. Last year 88% of passengers chose to come ashore, which is much higher than the industry average of 60-70%.’