Highland Council-run harbours in Wester Ross help contribute to busiest ever cruise ship season
WESTER Ross harbours owned by Highland Council have enjoyed their busiest cruise ship season ever.
During the summer months 140 ships visited the council's various Highland harbours – carrying 29,000 passengers and leading to a revenue contribution of over £210,000 in harbour dues.
The figure is up 27 per cent in a year.
The biggest winner was Portree's harbour on Skye, which generated almost half of all Highland Council's cruise ship revenues and is capable of handling up to 3000 passengers at a time.
But a number of Wester Ross harbours – including Kyle of Lochalsh, Gairloch, Shieldaig and Plockton – also made increased contributions to cruising tourism. These harbours are now becoming popular with the smaller cruise operators which are growing in popularity. These ships carry up to 12 passengers into shallow restricted areas that the bigger ships cannot reach.
Elsewhere, Fort William also enjoyed an increase in cruise ships. This has been assisted by the work of the Fort William Marina and Shoreline Company whose volunteers assist passengers with information and provide a warm welcome whatever the weather.
Highland Council believes 2020 will be a similarly successful season and said bookings were strong for 2021 and 2022 as cruise companies plan to move more of their fleet into north-west Scotland itineraries.
Chairman of the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee, Cllr Allan Henderson said: “National cruise ship figures suggest each passenger spends an average of £100 per harbour visit so the bumper season our council run harbours have had has generated almost £3 million for the local Highland economy.
"This is very positive news and I am delighted that next year and the years beyond look like they are going to be even more successful. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our harbour staff for their hard work. I would also like to thank the local communities, especially all the volunteers, for making passengers feel so welcome.”
