By
Rebecca Gibson |
Ireland’s cruise ports are set to welcome 300 cruise calls this year, making 2017 the country’s busiest-ever year for cruising, according to Cruise Ireland.
The record season follows three years of cruise success, which have seen a 50% increase in the number of cruise calls to Ireland. Cruise Ireland hopes these numbers will rise further in future.
Currently most cruise ships to Ireland call at ports in the major cities of Dublin, Belfast and Cork, as well as smaller ports such as Galway, Derry-Londonderry, Waterford, Killybegs and Dun Laoghaire.
“In the past 10 years, the island of Ireland has outperformed the European marketplace, recording average annual growth in cruise passenger numbers of 13% against the European average across the same period of 9%,” said Joe O’Neill, current chairman of Cruise Ireland and Belfast Harbour’s commercial director. “Feedback from cruise lines on their experience of visiting Ireland is very positive and encouragingly the cruise industry is projecting that demand for Ireland as a cruise destination will continue with a 14% growth forecast to 2020.”