In the season to date, the island has seen about 25,000 cruise passengers disembark, and of the 46 ships expected to date, 39 have made it. One visit postponed for a week and the others cancelled due to weather conditions.
The attrition rate of about 13% is much better than that seen in recent years, where the number of ships not dropping anchor has been closer to 20%, though the number of liners booked to visit has declined markedly.
But the first two ships of the summer both cancelled, delaying the season by a fortnight.
There were 7,212 cruise ship visitors in the second quarter of the year, down 40% on the 11,982 recorded in the same period last year, and cruise ship day visitors represented 7% of all visitors to Guernsey during the quarter, compared with 13% in the same period in 2025.
Visit Guernsey’s latest Travel and Visitor Accommodation Bulletin shows the figure was also 78% down on the 32,819 cruise passengers recorded in the second quarter of 2023.
The fall contrasted with growth in visitors arriving by other forms of transport.
Overall, there were 96,045 visitors between April and June, including cruise passengers – 6% more than the same quarter last year. But excluding cruise passengers, the total was 88,833, an increase of 13%.
States tourism lead Deputy Lee Van Katwyk said that talks were continuing about the long-term direction of the cruise sector, including whether major infrastructure investment was required, whether private investment could play a role, or whether Guernsey should focus more heavily on smaller expedition ships.
‘Guernsey values the cruise industry,’ he said.
‘In one way or another, we will continue to chase the cruise ships. It’s going to be one of the important spokes of the tourism industry moving forwards.’
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