Total of 76,000 come ashore from 62 visiting cruise ships

But the company that brought more than half of those visitors is not scheduled to return next year at this stage.

The final cruise ship of the season visited yesterday, following in the wake of 61 other visits this season.

Visit Guernsey has been looking at the number of people getting off the ships, although data from the final two of the season still needs to be added.

That shows that cruise ships have been busy. The vessels had a capacity for up to 108,000 people and were running at nearly 90% full, with 96,000 people.

Of these, more than 76,000 got off the boats to visit the island.

‘Our landed (disembarking) figure is 79% for 2023, which is considerably higher than the average which, anecdotally from the cruise industry, is 60-70%,’ said a Visit Guernsey spokeswoman.

‘There is some interesting data in the Q2 Bulletin, but cruise specific, 58% of all visitors leaving by aeroplane or ferry had visited Guernsey before. Of those, 5% had visited before on a cruise.’

The cruise ship industry was hit hard by the pandemic, and Guernsey closed it borders to the boats in 2020 and 2021. Then in 2022 there were 86 visits.

The spokeswoman said they were working to attract cruise ship companies.

‘In 2023, we hosted the first cruise specific familiarisation trip with representatives from luxury international cruise brands to showcase the islands,’ she said.

‘Six representatives came from Saga Cruises, Explora Journeys, Silversea, Seadream Yacht Club, Ponant and P&O Cruises for a four-day exploration of the islands of Guernsey focusing on shore excursion products as a wider destination offering.

‘We continue to work with both existing operators, as well as potential new ones, of both large and small cruise ships and have recently met with representatives from P&O, Carnival, Cunard, Celebrity, Ponant, Saga, Scenic Cruises, Azamara, Seabourn and Sea Dream – to ensure Guernsey stays on their itineraries or is added as a new port of call.’

More than a dozen visits were made by Princess Cruises ships, with the 3,650-capacity Regal Princess making 10. Overall more than 38,000 visitors got off Princess Cruises ships to visit Guernsey this year.

But earlier this year it was reported the company was not going to return to Guernsey next year due to fuel worries.

The spokeswoman said that there were ‘positive ongoing comms with Princess about how we can get back on their itineraries’.