A new report issued by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) has found the cruise industry’s direct contribution to the UK economy grew to £2.247 billion in 2014 from £2.225 billion in 2013.
The UK remains one of Europe’s biggest cruise markets, with a 25.7% share of passenger numbers in 2014 – a year in which 1.64 million British passengers took an ocean cruise.
The port of Southampton retained its position as Europe’s largest embarkation and disembarkation port, with a total of 1.57 million passengers passing through the port in 2014. During the year, there were 422 cruise ship turnarounds at Southampton, each of which is estimated to contribute £2 million to the local economy according to research undertaken by the port.
Southampton is one of a number of UK ports forecasting a major increase in cruise traffic in 2015, predicting that passenger numbers will jump 11% to 1.75 million.
This year, the Hampshire port is the base for two brand new ships – P&O Cruises’ Britannia and Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas – whilst Princess Cruises Royal Princess, which launched in 2014, returns to Southampton for the summer 2015 season.
London Cruise Terminal, Port of Tilbury, is also seeing a large jump in cruise traffic. 2014 passenger traffic totalled 54,000 and the port is forecasting that this will almost double to 100,000 passengers in 2015, with further growth also expected in 2016.
Other ports predicting an increase in cruise traffic include Liverpool, which in May hosted Cunard’s ‘Three Queens’ – the Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria and Queen Mary 2 – and forecasts cruise passenger growth of 12% to 83,000 in 2015. Bristol’s renaissance as a port continues this year, having restarted cruise ship sailings in 2013 for the first time in 20 years, with passenger traffic forecast to grow 11.5% in 2015 to 20,000.
Cruise traffic to islands around the UK mainland is forecast to grow strongly too with cruise traffic through Guernsey port predicted to jump 20% to 130,000 and through Orkney by 17% to 79,000 passengers.
The industry created around 800 new jobs in the UK in 2014, taking the total number to 71,222, and accounting for a fifth of all cruise industry jobs across Europe. The cruise industry supports almost 350,000 jobs in Europe.
The cruise industry’s direct contribution to the combined economies of Europe grew by 2.8% to €16.637 billion (£11.842 billion) in 2014, whilst the overall contribution of the cruise industry, including indirect items such as spending by cruise line suppliers, grew by 2.1% from €39.361 billion (£28.043 billion) to €40.223 billion (£28.659 billion).
Andy Harmer, director, CLIA UK & Ireland, said: “Today’s report reaffirms the UK’s position not only as one of the world’s major cruise markets, but as a country which continues to reap multi-billion pound dividends from the cruise industry. Across the UK, ports and the cruise lines that serve them are playing an ever-increasing role in boosting the economies that surround them.”
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