UK cruise industry adds £2.5bn to the UK economy

The UK cruise market is worth billions to the economy and provides around 70,000 jobs, growing so much over the last year that the UK market is now the biggest in Europe.

The latest figures from the industry association Cruise Lines International show that an extra 25,000 Brits hopped on board a cruise liner last year, taking the total passenger number to over 1.7 million.

That helped the sector contribute more than £2.5bn to the UK economy and create more than 4,000 new jobs.

David Dingle is chief executive of Carnival Cruiselines UK, which includes P&O and Cunard.