JOHN DALY: Irish ports set to ease into cruise control

Irish ports will have their busiest ever cruise ship season in 2017 with over 300 vessels scheduled to visit ports and harbours around the country, writes John Daly.

This further extends the success of the past three years, which has seen a 50% increase in the number of cruise calls to Ireland. Cruise Ireland, an all-island marketing co-operative, believes that there is scope for even greater increases in the number of cruise ship visits.

“In the past 10 years the island of Ireland has outperformed the European marketplace, recording average annual growth in cruise passenger numbers of 13% against the European average across the same period of 9%,” said Cruise Ireland chairman Joe O’Neill.