£1bn+ generated for the City of Southampton by record cruise year

More than 460 cruise vessel calls and 2.6 million passengers visiting Southampton have generated more than £1 billion for the local and regional economy.

The sector supports over 15,000 jobs with a wide range of local businesses benefitting– from those closely aligned to the sector, in hospitality, stevedore operations and fuel bunkering services to the wider Hampshire visitor economy and other local Southampton businesses.

Stephen Manion, Executive Director of Go Southampton, said:

"Cruise passengers are a massively important part of Southampton and Hampshire's tourist economy. 'Cruisers' tend to be higher spending visitors than the average and across a wider range of categories. We look forward to working with the Port of Southampton to increase not just the numbers of visitors but their ability to access the City and all that it has to offer."  

Associated British Ports (ABP) are proud to be the operator of Europe's leading turnaround cruise port with five cruise terminals, including the new Horizon Terminal. The Port of Southampton is home to the UK's first large-scale shore power facility, enabling cruise vessels to achieve zero emissions when in the Port – just one element of ABP's commitment to sustainability.

ABP encourages passengers to maximise the use of public transport, and we plan our operations with the City's traffic team to minimise disruption. We work with the City Council and port partners to ensure the air quality levels continue to be below nationally set thresholds, and using the air quality monitors on the Port, we can accurately measure this.

Alastair Welch, ABP Regional Director, Southampton, said:

"We are proud of the role we play in supporting the local, regional and national economy. While this is a record year for cruise in the City, we continue to invest in this and other port-related sectors to ensure long-term success for our Port City."

Source: Associated British Ports