Southampton cruise ship visits back to pre-Covid levels

Southampton will welcome around 500 cruise ship visits this year

The number of cruise ships arriving in Hampshire this year is already at pre-pandemic levels, a council has heard.

An estimated two million passengers on almost 500 vessels, including seven new cruise ships, will visit Southampton port before the end of the year.

Each cruise call is worth £2.7m to the economy, director of Hampshire 2050 Gary Westbrook told a cabinet meeting.

Currently, half of that economic benefit stays in the region and supports 14,000 jobs a year, he said.

Mr Westbrook told the Hampshire County Council meeting: "We are back to those pre-pandemic levels. About two million passengers come through the port of Southampton every year on those cruise ships.

"Based on various economic studies we have done, about £2.7m of benefits per cruise ship call, and there are 500 of those a year. They are hugely important for the local, regional and national economy."

He said studies had been commissioned to ensure "we retain the economic benefit of that within our local area".

Portsmouth is also looking to triple the number of passengers welcomed on cruise calls from 35,000 people in 2022 to 97,000 on 83 ships in 2023.

Efforts to promote tourist spots in Hampshire were also under way to encourage tourist spending in the area, Mr Westbrook added.

"Making Hampshire itself an important destination, which is attractive in terms of using Southampton as a stopping point because people come to the UK to visit our area.

"To make sure tourists spend money in our area, we are working very closely with the range of our tourist attractions and local tourist spots to really promote what those are."

He said the area's wine tourism industry was a good example of "how to make sure the money is spent in our area".

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