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Number of British cruise passengers drops for first time in years
The number of British and Irish taking cruises fell by almost 5% to 1.64 million last year.
CLIA Europe blamed the fall, the first for more than a decade, on cruise lines shifting capacity away from UK ports and other popular destinations for UK and Irish consumers, such as the Mediterranean.
As a result of the 4.8% drop in UK and Ireland, Germany leapfrogged the region to become Europe’s the largest source market last year, with 1.77 million passengers.
Looking at Europe as a whole, there was a slight 0.5% rise in the number of cruise passengers to a record high of 6.39 million.
CLIA Europe chairman and executive chairman of MSC Cruises Pierfrancesco Vago said: “This may sound like a small achievement, but if we consider the European economic climate, we can see that this is an extraordinary result, and continues our industry’s trend of steady growth year-on-year. While Europe is struggling to recover from the economic crisis, our industry has continued to grow. We have grown by an incredible 44% since 2008.”
In the UK and Ireland, the number of passengers taking fly-cruises rose 3% in 2014 and CLIA said the long-term trend remained resilient.
Andy Harmer, director of CLIA UK & Ireland said: “2015 is all set to be a landmark year with many additional cruise ships sailing from British waters including P&O Cruises’ Britannia, Royal Caribbean International’s Anthem of the Seas, Princess Cruises’ Royal Princess and Cruise & Maritime Voyages’ Magellan, and this augers well for a renewed growth in passenger numbers from the UK and Ireland.
“The UK and Ireland continues to have one of Europe’s highest rates of market penetration for cruise holidays. Our industry is putting massive investment into new ships – over US$11 billion in the next two years alone – and we’re confident that the future prospects continue to be bright.”
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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