NI Tourism: Belfast cruise season aims for pre-pandemic levels

Viking Venus arrived into Belfast on Friday

About 340,000 visitors are expected to arrive in Northern Ireland during the 2022 cruise season, Belfast Harbour has said as it welcomed its first ship of the year.

Viking Venus was the first vessel to arrive on Friday.

There are 130 cruise ship calls scheduled between April and November, up from the 72 calls in 2021.

The number is down from the 146 ships that arrived in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gary Hall, commercial director at Belfast Harbour, said it was "great to see so many ships booked to come back into the port this year".

"The majority of the guests onboard today are American," he told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"They boarded in London Tilbury, they're doing an inter-UK itinerary which actually goes up through the Scottish islands and ends up in Bergen in Norway."

'Welcome business'

Mary Jo McCanny, director of visitor servicing at Visit Belfast, said the cruise sector was "massively important" for the tourism industry.

The organisation has estimated that it could bring in as much as £15m to the Northern Ireland economy this year.

"One of the key strands of our strategy is to attract more cruise passengers," she explained.

"At a time when we are going through a recovery for the tourism industry it's really welcome business."

In November, Fred Olsen's Borealis was the 72nd and last cruise ship call to visit Belfast in 2021.

The Borealis left Belfast in November to end the 2021 cruise season

At the time, Mr Hall described it as a "fantastic season", but that the harbour hoped to "get back to pre-pandemic levels for 2022".

There was only one call during 2020 as Covid-19 lockdowns and restrictions on travel affected visitor numbers.

On Friday, Belfast Harbour said the expected boost in cruise ship numbers could make it "a fantastic year for the local tourism industry".

The 2022 schedule includes 50 vessels from 33 cruise lines; 18 of the ships making their first calls to Belfast.

These include Ambassador's Ambassador Ambience, and Enchanted Princess and Island Princess, both operated by Princess Cruises.

'Customer confidence'

Ms McCanny said "there's been a huge interest in cruise, there always has been".

"I think people who cruise will never stop cruising.

"There's been a big boost in sales, a lot of people maybe who had tickets to cruise before have rebooked, so, yes, the interest is there."

Michael Robinson, Belfast Harbour's port director, said the 2022 numbers reflected "an increase in customer confidence in travel".

"Following the safe and successful resumption of cruise tourism last year, we continue to work with public health agencies and the cruise lines to implement safety protocols to ensure the wellbeing of all visitors and staff," he said in a statement.

"As restrictions are eased, the team will review our procedures in line with government guidelines, with safety remaining our highest priority."