Southampton can replicate on a record-breaking cruise 12 months, with greater than £1 billion generated for the town. Southampton, the UK’s greatest cruise port, acquired over 450 cruise ship calls, welcoming over 2.6 million passengers.
UK’s Greatest Cruise Port Generates Extra Than 1 Billion Kilos
2023 has been essentially the most profitable 12 months in historical past for the UK’s busiest cruise port, Southampton. The Related British Ports introduced on January 1, 2024, that the port generated greater than £1 billion in 2023, benefitting Southampton and the broader Hampshire space.
Greater than 460 cruise ships referred to as on the port in 2023, bringing with them 2.6 million cruise passengers. It makes Southampton one of many main cruise ports in Europe, and the biggest by a major margin in Western Europe.
Stephen Manion, Govt Director of Go Southampton: “Cruise passengers are a massively necessary a part of Southampton and Hampshire’s vacationer economic system.
‘Cruisers’ are typically larger spending guests than the typical and throughout a wider vary of classes. We look ahead to working with the Port of Southampton to extend not simply the numbers of tourists however their potential to entry the Metropolis and all that it has to supply.”
The primary areas the place the trade made vital contributions to the native economic system included the hospitality trade, together with motels and eating places, transportation akin to taxis, employed automobiles, public transport and busses, stevedoring providers throughout loading operations and different port operations, and gasoline bunkering.
Altogether, the cruise trade supported over 15,000 jobs in 2023 in Southampton throughout its 5 totally different cruise terminals, which additionally contains the brand new Horizon Terminal. The cruise sector is without doubt one of the greatest employers within the area, producing revenue from a number of industries, together with motels, transportation, gasoline provide, and port operations.
Alastair Welch, ABP Regional Director, Southampton: “We’re pleased with the position we play in supporting the native, regional, and nationwide economic system. Whereas it is a file 12 months for cruise within the Metropolis, we proceed to speculate on this and different port-related sectors to make sure long-term success for our Port Metropolis.”
Southampton Seems Forward to 2024
Whereas winter may not be the most effective time to go cruising in Western Europe, Southampton stays busy, with a number of cruise ships scheduled for calls throughout the first 4 months of the 12 months.
MSC Euribia, Queen Victoria, AidaNova, Queen Mary 2, Iona, Norwegian Pleasure, Sky Princess, Arvia, Jewel of the Seas, Regal Princess, MSC Virtuosa, MSC Poesia, and lots of extra are all scheduled for visits by April 30. In all, 50 cruise ship calls are scheduled to Southampton Port between January 3, 2024, and April 30, 2024.
From April, the port will probably be considerably busier because the climate round Europe improves. In Could, 66 calls are scheduled on the port, 58 calls are scheduled in June, 51 in July, and 68 in August. Between September 1 and December 31, 2024, one other 162 calls are scheduled to happen, a quantity that can probably enhance even additional.
Southampton can look ahead to an much more profitable cruise 12 months, with increasingly more cruise ships and cruise passengers discovering their approach to one in every of Europe’s most handy cruise ports.
