Whats the story in Balamory
My boys are now 9 and 6 so they are far to mature for CBeebies and the lovely little programmes that they used to watch back in the day but I remember when every day without fail we had to sit down and watch one of their favourites which was Balamory. The show was a children’s programme based on a little fishing village and the locals like the teacher, painter, bus driver etc. Every day we would get the latest tail of what was going on in Balamory and a mixture of upbeat songs and dances to go with it. For those of you with little ones you will know the show I am talking about so imagine my surprise when I was browsing through some cruise news and saw the familiar little fishing village staring back at me. The fictional village Balamory is actually the picturesque Scottish town called Tobermory and is proving to be quite a bit with the cruise industry. The little village with its brightly couloured sea front buildings has just had its best year ever attracting more than 30 cruise ships during this summer. Fred Olsens Balmoral brought the largest number of passengers to visit with 1,400 passengers making their way on shore.
Mary MacGregor, of Tobermory Harbour Association, said Mull’s popularity as a destination had grown over the last few years.
She said: “Interest from shipping agents in bringing passengers to Tobermory has risen over the past three years and they’ve already got good bookings for 2014 and 2015.
“The main street is just a short walk from the landing pontoon and allows visitors to enjoy the shops, the museum and the distillery.
“Some of the passengers go straight onto coaches to go to other parts of the island, so it brings benefits throughout Mull and Iona.”
However, the cruise liner business is not always a guaranteed bonanza. Mrs MacGregor said: “It depends on the type of cruise it is.
“One gift shop owner saw his shop’s shelves nearly emptied by the visiting passengers.
“On another occasion they’d stocked up specially and hardly sold anything, different demographics of passenger dictates.”
She added: “Quite a lot of Americans and continental Europeans were keen to sample local cuisine which they don’t get on the actual ship.”
Tobermory is looking forward to continuing to attract liners and has a good list already established for 2014.
Mrs MacGregor said: “One of the more interesting ships due to call next summer is Wind Surf, quite an exclusive ship with sails.”
I think this is brilliant and looks like a really lovely little place to visit even if the little Balamory characters won’t be on hand to welcome you ashore.
About Me
I have been working in the Travel Industry for 16 years and originally started out in Business travel. After doing this for a while I was given an opportunity to move into the cruising industry and haven't looked back since. I thoroughly enjoy my job and can't think of anything…
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