By Scott Wright
FORTH Ports has declared that it expects to see a 50 per cent rise in cruise ships coming into the east of Scotland this year.
The company anticipates that around 150 vessels carrying an estimated 225,000 passengers will sail into the ports of Leith, Rosyth and Dundee, as well as anchorages in the River Forth for Newhaven and South Queensferry, in 2023, up from 100 last year.
The forecasts underline the continuing recovery of the cruising market from the pandemic, which placed huge restrictions on international travel.
Forth Ports hailed Edinburgh as a “marquee” destination for the sector on account of its wide range of tourist attractions and cultural events.
READ MORE: Former Arnotts building in Inverness turned into flats
The cruise season traditionally runs from April to October. Forth said it will kick off this year on April 11 with the arrival of the Viking Venus into the deep anchorage near Newhaven, with the vessel set to bring thousands of passengers into Scotland’s capital city.
Rob Mason, head of cruise at Forth Ports, said: “Since the restart of the industry last year we have been working hard with the city, destination partners and the wider cruise industry to meet all of the industries challenges and deliver another success cruise season.
“We know that there are significant economic benefits to the country as hundreds of thousands of passengers visit our cities and we look forward to welcoming them this year.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel