Brexit is blamed for the big drop in cruise passengers

About 115,000 disembarked in 2019, the year before the UK left the European Union and the pandemic spread around the world. But fewer than 40,000 passengers have come ashore this year.

States cruise operations manager Mark Renouf said Brexit had made it much harder for Guernsey to attract cruise ships.

‘Because we weren’t in the EU, it meant vessels could do duty-free sales here and then head back to the UK, and so we used to be the last port of call for a lot of journeys,’ he said.

‘The same cruise lines come, but now they don’t come as regularly. They used to bring all the ships in via us. Now they come five or six times a year rather than almost 20.’

No cruise ships came to Guernsey in 2020 or 2021, as a result of Covid, and this presented an additional problem to the sector locally at exactly the wrong time.

‘A lot of people who were in the industry, and who we had relations with, left the industry and new people came in when it restarted. We had a lot of rebuilding of bridges and building of contacts to do.’

After the disappointment of this season, tourism bosses have dropped a strategy of trying to attract smaller, high-end cruise companies.

And a new steering group has been formed which includes officials from various parts of the States with an interest in cruise ship visits.

The group, which is chaired by Economic Development’s tourism lead Deputy Simon Vermeulen, is involved in a review of facilities at St Peter Port Harbour, which could lead to improvements to make it easier for larger ships to bring passengers ashore even in bad weather.

‘Over the close season, we did a lot of work on the infrastructure on the actual pier itself, widening the walkways and putting in new barriers, which helps the flow and safety of passengers,’ said Mr Renouf.

‘The next part to consider would be access for the cruise tenders onto the pontoon. We need to look at what the pontoon offers and whether it’s the right size and right material. If the pontoon isn’t sturdy enough, and it’s rising up and down with the tide at the end, it makes it dangerous to offload or unload. If it’s sturdier, there will be better access in bad weather.’

Without the facilities to allow cruise ships to dock, the States currently employs vessels from Trident and Sark Shipping to help transport passengers from the cruise ships, or tenders have to be used which are kept on the liners themselves.

‘Some of the larger ships coming in don’t like to or can’t tender, so they all need more support,’ said Mr Renouf.

Sea conditions outside the harbour are also a factor.

‘The ship tenders themselves wouldn’t necessarily be able to be used because they can’t cope with large swells.

‘If we had a tender service we could offer which would go in worse weather then that would help, but that isn’t an easy option. We have meetings going on over the next couple of weeks.’

Mr Renouf said that the States was trying to plan for trade in three or four years’ time, because that was often how far ahead cruise companies were looking to arrange their ships’ schedules.