Harbouring big ideas

Scotland may not be able to currently compete with the likes of Southampton, Dover or Liverpool in terms of the number of departing cruises, but watch out, the numbers are now growing at a record rate.In 2018 over 825 cruises departed or visited Scottish Ports with over 780,000 visitors spending an estimated £109 million in the local economies and importantly,creating almost 1100 equivalent full time jobs, from Scottish pipers welcoming ships to engineers repairing them.

Where are the Scottish Ports ? I think you would be surprised at the number : Aberdeen,Dundee,,Fort William,Greenock,Holy Loch Port, Leith,Invergordon,Inverness,Lerwick,Montrose,Oban,Peterhead,Port Ellen,Portree,Rosyth,Scrabster,Stornaway and Ullapool.Thats 18 and counting.

Last year was a strange but busy day for Lerwick when the MSC Meravlglia docked in July with over 5000 visitors being tendered to shore and that doubled the whole islands population ! 119 ships are due to visit this year.The biggest ship to visit however was the Celebrity Silhouette in 2016. and Oceania cruises.

The future then looks very bright for cruising in general in Scotland but who are the major players in the market going forward !

Fred Olsen cruises have had a strong allegiance with Scotland and have 8 cruises scheduled from Rosyth this year including a very popular French river cruising departure on Balmoral  on the 15th june

Cruise and Maritime have some great departures from Rosyth including the Marco Polo sailing at the end of August for 32 nights entitled Canada in the Fall. with another 5 cruises this summer.Also there are 4 from the port of Dundee with 2020 also on sale, but the exciting news is that from 2020 there are now 6 departures from Aberdeen for the first time.There are also 4 departures from  Glasgow Greenock with a great River Seine experience cruise departing this June.

Azamara Club cruises have a departure from Edinburghs alternative Port at Leith in July of, course you can also visit the Royal Yacht Britannia which is  moored there, but im afraid wont take you anywhere. Specialists  Windstar cruises also have 3 sailings

Greenock also hosts Hebridean Island cruises.

I said i would reveal the story of the dog statue on my facebook post-at montrose harbour in the picture, his name is Bamse, a St Bernard who saved a drunken sailor who fell overboard amongst other heroics, why not visit

http://www.bamsemontrose.co.uk/index.php

and take a look at his story

Here are my pictures today from my day out at Montrose and much smaller Arbroath harbour.If you need to know more about Scottish departures please contact me.