Topic: 1.75m Brits will cruise in 2011...

...And it's projected that 1.65 million of us will cruise this in 2010.

The PSA (Passenger Shipping Association) put it all down to "exceptional value" and "high standards" provided by a cruise holiday.



PSA director Bill Gibbons said: “The UK cruise industry proved resilient in 2009 despite the very difficult economic climate and much of this success can be attributed to the all-inclusive nature of cruising and the very high standards of quality and service.

“These are values intrinsic to cruising and will continue to encourage greater numbers of passengers, with the PSA predicting 1.65 million Brits taking a cruise holiday in 2010.”

Looking to the future, Gibbons said: “There are 14 new ship launches this year bringing capacity for an additional 28,000 passenger berths.

“Among the new ships are three dedicated to the UK market - Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Eclipse, Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth and P&O Cruises’ Azura. Cruise & Maritime has a second ship, Ocean Countess, and Royal Caribbean International is providing a year-round service from Southampton with Independence of the Seas.

“Disney Cruise Lines and Holland America Line are also introducing full length cruises out of Dover.

“In 2011, nine new ships will be launched and although none are directly dedicated to the UK market, we predict the number of Brits taking a cruise holiday will grow to 1.75 million passengers.”

Interesting that more fly-cruise than sail from the UK. I didn't realise there was such a big difference in the numbers.

It will be interesting to see how this is affected by the demise of OV. Will more people cruise from UK or will they just find other lines as there seems to be lots of ships in the Med scheduled for 2011?