Influx of cruise ship tourists ‘spin off’ from Queen’s visit
Thousands of cruise ship passengers flooded into the city centre in what business leaders described as the first major spin-off from the Queen’s landmark visit.
The influx occurred as the Port of Cork made history by hosting, for the first time on the same day, three luxury cruise liners.
The MV Rotterdam docked at the Cobh Cruise Terminal while the 300-metre giant MV Azura along with the MV Spirit of Adventure berthed at the Ringaskiddy Deepwater Berth shortly after 6am.
The MV Rotterdam which had sailed from New York had some 1,600 passengers on board, mostly American but also some Dutch.
The magnificent MV Azura is a P&O cruise liner launched last year.
It is one of the largest cruise ships in the P&O Cruises fleet and had 3,100 mostly British passengers and 1,200 crew on board.
The MV Spirit of Adventure had 470 people on board, again mostly British.
Several hundred passengers opted for organised trips to Cashel, Blarney, Kinsale, and Midleton.
All the tours and excursions were promoted by four tourist representatives placed on board the ships by the Port of Cork.
But the majority opted to visit the city centre.
A fleet of coaches spent the day ferrying over a 1,000 passengers to the heart of the city, parking outside City Hall.
Iarnród Eireann also laid on extra trains on its Cobh to Cork line.
Some took open top bus tours, but most made a beeline for the English Market, which was one of the highlights of the Queen’s state visit in May.
Tom Durcan, chairman of the market’s trader’s association, said his members welcomed visitors to “the biggest deli in Europe”.
“They wouldn’t be heading in to Cork if it wasn’t for the positive promotion the country, and this city in particular, received during the Queen’s visit,” he said.
“The English Market was advertised all over the world. It makes the millions that was spent on the visit worthwhile.”
The US visitors were snapping up his €3 packs of Irish stew herb.
“It’s a little taste of Ireland. You just add beef. The US tourists are buying them hand over fist,” he said.
Donal Healy, chief executive of the Cork Business Association, said the influx of visitors is very welcome.
“We would like to congratulate the Port of Cork for organising the visits,” he said.
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