Lerwick Harbor is on course for record cruise traffic next year, with advance bookings currently at the highest level yet, with 87 ships scheduled to arrive between March and October, the Lerwick Port Authority said in its latest release.
The latest forecast is revealed on the final day of the season (Wednesday, 27 July 2017) when Norwegian Jade arrived for the fourth time this year at the Shetland port, with 2,335 passengers on board, en route from Southampton to Reykjavik, Iceland, on an 11-day trans-Atlantic voyage to New York.
“A feature of the year has been poor weather or itinerary changes, causing cancellation of around 10% of planned cruise calls. These tended to be larger vessels, meaning passenger numbers were around 20% down on early-season predictions,” the port said.
Lerwick Port Authority is planning to deepen the approach channel and the berth at Mair’s Pier to provide alongside-berthing for a number of vessels which currently need to anchor and transfer passengers by tender.
This will reduce any weather disruption for these cruise calls, the port said.
Work has started on the consent required to dredge and it is hoped the work can take place in 2018.
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