Van Gogh to visit Barrow

The 15,000 tonne Van Gogh will call at Barrow docks during a round-Britain tour on May 5th. The vessel is travelling with more than 500 passengers and 250 crew and when the visit to Barrow was originally arranged, the ship had been chartered to the Travelscope holiday firm which went bust at the end of last year.

A Dutch firm, Club Cruise, took over the ship’s planned 2008 world cruise and will continue to operate the Van Gogh in the UK market. Another vessel, the 30,000 tonne Tahitian Princess, is expected to dock in Barrow in May 2009. But after a decade of promotion as a cruise destination, ships are only visiting at the rate of about one a year, to allow their guests to spend days on trips to various Lake District attractions.

All the cruise ship visits hosted by Barrow have been viewed as highly successful by the cruise lines in question but it’s still not enough of a business to keep a cruise terminal running in the longer term. The good news is that previously unexplored destinations are a big draw for repeat cruise passengers and this may mean the Lake District becomes a popular destination.