Wales to tap into cruise market

Welsh MPs want the massive increase in the UK the cruise market to benefit ports around the Welsh coast, but at present the ability of cruise liners to dock there is limited by the lack of facilities at Welsh ports.

Now The Welsh Affairs Committee is asking the UK Government to invest in improving those facilities. They want a distinctive ports policy for Wales to bring the region to the same level of cruise activity as on the Baltic coast. Six cruise ships have visited into Milford Haven in the last year, including the 3,500-passenger Maasdam but because passengers have to come into the shore on tenders it’s not such a great experience as if they were able to visit the port from a dock. Cardiff, Swansea, Holyhead and Fishguard have joined Milford Haven in a bid to create a cruise consortium, and Anglesey council has obtained part of a tranche of European funding of 1.2m euros to develop the port destinations of Anglesey, Milford Haven, Swansea, Dublin, Waterford and Cork. Holyhead is hard at work, rebuilding a mooring to try and accommodate Westerdam which carries 2,000 passengers and is due to visit Holyhead next summer. Part of the plan is to have cruises embarking and disembarking from Wales by 2020, adding to the ability of British cruise passengers to travel to a port near their homes to start their cruise holiday.