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Guernsey is set to welcome more than 100 ships, with potentially 150,000 visitors and crew coming ashore, during the 2018 cruise season.
The first ships are scheduled to arrive over the Easter weekend with the Saga Sapphire due on Good Friday and Marco Polo on Easter Monday.
The schedule also includes five cruise liner visits to Sark and three each to Herm and Alderney. Overall it includes eleven inaugural visits with Royal Caribbbean’s Brilliance of the Seas and Costa Mediterranea among them, both with more than 2,500 passengers on each call.
Cunard will also be calling on the islands again with the ‘three Queens’ coming to Guernsey this season: Queen Elizabeth, Queen Victoria, and Queen Mary 2.
VisitGuernsey is continuing to extoll the positives of the cruise liner industry for the island. Marketing Manager Wendy Pedder said: “Figures recently released by CruiseBritain show that the number of cruise passengers visiting Britain continues to rise for the 10th year consecutively including a 17% rise over 2016."
New excursions and tours will be on offer to visitors this year to capitalise on the release of the Guernsey film with the branding "Go see the island that inspired the story", as VisitGuernsey said it was expecting these to be very popular with the film on staggered release in France, Germany, Holland and the USA.
Harbour master Chad Murray added: “The cruise sector is still a growth business, both as an industry and, for the island. The feedback from operators last year was very positive and we are looking forward to welcoming both returning and new ships to Guernsey.”
We're told the cruise sector provides a significant contribution to the Guernsey economy with an independent study by local firm Island Global Research saying it was worth around £4 million in direct visitor spending last year. The research also concluded that there was a notable increase in time passengers spent ashore, compared to previous years, which was reflected in an increase in average spend.
Parking arrangements will be the same as last season with the red light arm on the Albert Pier closed on ship days with the aim to open as quickly as possible on smaller ship days. These arrangements will come into force on Friday 30 March - with the small car spaces at the eastern end of the Albert Pier then not available until the end of the season so the area can be used for passenger handling. Other changes are also being made to ensure there is room for taxis and coaches and other factors.
A number of other parking restrictions will be in force at other times, and there will be signs informing motorists when this is the case.
To mitigate for the loss of short term parking on the Albert Pier, 40 spaces of 10-hour parking on the seaward side of South Esplanade by Havelet Bay will change to 2-hour parking for the duration of the cruise liner season. To compensate for this, additional 10-hour parking will be provided on Castle Emplacement in an area normally reserved for Port Permit holders.
Full details of parking arrangements can be found at gov.gg/cruiseseason2018.
Special Constables will also continue to manage the unofficial crossing point near the Town Church at busy times which is expected to be necessary on approximately 1/3rd of the days when liners are scheduled to visit this year.
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