PSA announces record year for cruise
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
The Passenger Shipping Association has revealed that 2012 was a record year for the British cruise industry – with UK ports setting records across the board.
Overall, passenger embarkations increased by 10% year-on-year (y-o-y) up to 962,000 – representing 78,000 extra UK passengers and 6,000 overseas.
The statistics mean that the industry is well on track to hit the one million passenger mark in 2013.
PSA director, William Gibbons, said: “The past year was an impressive one for the UK cruise industry, especially in view of the combination of challenges the year presented. The increase in passenger figures bears testament to the value and diversity that cruising represents and the positive experiences that bring passengers back time and time again. We feel 2012’s record results for British ports are particularly remarkable and we very much look forward to seeing UK ports achieve the million mark in 2013, and the associated economic benefits that this will bring to the country.”
The ports which saw the biggest increases in traffic were Southampton, Dover and Portsmouth – all of which have capitalised on the increasing popularity of ex-UK cruises. The number of UK ports that received cruise calls increased to 52.
Taking a look at entire industry, British passengers numbers also saw an increase – albeit a relatively small one – rising by 1,000 people to 1,701,000 passengers.
The most popular destination again proved to be the Mediterranean – however one of the major success stories was Baltic cruises, which underwent a massive 29% y-o-y increase – to around 443,000 passengers from 342,000 the previous year.