As the industry gathers at Seatrade Med, CruiseBritain highlights recent figures from the European Cruise Council’s annual economic impact study that show that cruise tourism generates an average expenditure of €97 per passenger port visit for the local economy.  The expenditure from 733,300 embarkations and 454,600 port-of-call visits is boosted by the estimated €6.2million spent by approximately 516,500 crew arriving at UK ports.

Kate O’Hara, Chair CruiseBritain commented: ‘A typical 2,000-berth cruise ship can bring £170,000 into the local economy.  This level of spend is significant and reaffirms our belief that the cruise market has huge potential for British tourism. 454,600 port of call visits (a rise of 7% year-on-year) were made to British ports but, across Europe, there were just under 24million visits so there’s a great market out there to be won.  And other signs are also encouraging - the demand for cruises to northern Europe is growing faster than the Caribbean market.  The British cruise market is anticipated to grow by 8% this year and, in addition, other European markets, notably Germany, are also showing significant growth which further increases the opportunity for inbound tourism’.

Overall (including passenger expenditure) UK figures for 2009 show that the cruise industry generated € 2,408million in direct expenditure which represents 6.4% growth year-on-year. It is estimated that 55,599 jobs are supported at a total compensation package of € 1,953million.

To coincide with Seatrade Med, CruiseBritain is launching its new-look website (www.cruisebritain.org) which brings essential information on ports, service providers and itineraries together under one portal.