By
Richard Humphreys |
Last week, Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) held its inaugural UK Cruise Tourism Summit in Liverpool, England. The city has set a target of 250,000 annual cruise passengers (2024 saw over 200,000 cruise visitors arrive in Liverpool), aligning with Global Ports Holding’s £25 million investment in the port’s infrastructure.
The summit brought together industry leaders, alongside government, representatives from the UK’s devolved administrations, as well as ports and visit groups. Together, they discussed how cruise can be at the heart of the UK Government’s upcoming tourism strategy and how they can work collaboratively so the cruise industry can help the government achieve its aim of boosting inbound tourism to 50 million people a year by 2030.
While at the summit, CFR spoke with the general manager of Liverpool Cruise Port, John Mawer, from Global Ports Holding, about how the city of Liverpool is well equipped to handle a growing number of cruise tourists and why it is such an attractive destination.
“What we’re looking to do through investment as Global Ports Holding is to improve the infrastructure to support the growth,” says Mawer. “The facility we’ve got now copes with the current demand, but we believe the UK market is really buoyant and will grow.
“You only have to look at the cruise order book – around 60 ships are set to be built in the next 15 years. That’s crazy growth and they’ve got to go somewhere, and we know that the UK is really popular. So, for us, the plan is to make sure that we can continue to offer a high level of service and guest experience – we will work with the local authorities and with the mayor’s office and the city region to create an improved facility so we can bring more ships in.”
Liverpool is a popular destination for international visitors, whether they are interested in its football team (the new Premier League champions), The Beatles, the nearby Aintree horse racing track or Royal Birkdale Golf Club.
“For The Open at Royal Birkdale next year we have a ship that is specifically just for that,” says Mawer. “They’ll have golf fanatics onboard, and they’ve curated an itinerary around the golf course as they wanted to be in Birkdale for those days. It’s something we’re looking to tap into as well – it’s not a niche market anymore, there are a lot of people that want to play these international golf courses and cruise at the same time.
“And in terms of horse racing at Aintree, we’ve started speaking with The Jockey Club and a couple of cruise lines now about getting a ship to come in for the festival and act as a kind of floating hotel and build in bespoke VIP packages for guests to enjoy the city, the racing and the unique accommodation. I think there’s a huge demand for that as well.”
For Liverpool, between 50 to 60 per cent of international visitors are Americans, although there are growing numbers of French and German tourists. Mawer highlights another burgeoning market for Liverpool. “What we’re also seeing as a growing market is people who are from the UK,” he says. “They see cruises as a really great opportunity to see multiple destinations around England, Wales and Scotland that they may not have seen before and they get to do it in a lovely way of travelling on a cruise ship. They get to see seven, eight, nine, ten destinations that they wouldn’t normally see just by driving around. There is definitely a market of British people wanting to see other parts of Britain.”