Invergordon set for visitor influx as sea monsters come calling over weekend
AN Easter Ross town has seen thousands of visitors come and go this week with more seaborne arrivals expected over the weekend.
The deepwater port of Invergordon has welcomed passengers from around the world arriving on a variety of cruise liners, amongst them the head-turning Queen Mary 2.
She has capacity for around 3000 passengers and 1250 crew.
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On Saturday, the Caribbean Princess is expected to come calling, bringing up to 3300 passengers and 1200 crew.
There’s another visit scheduled by a Princess Cruises vessel on Sunday too - an even larger ship. The Regal Princess can carry 3800 passengers.
On Tuesday, it was the turn of AIDAluna, which had set out from Hamburg earlier in the week. She was due to make stops at Leith and Newcastle before returning to the German port this weekend.
She was built in the Meyer shipyard in Germany and is approximately 252 metres long, accommodating up to 2500 guests.
The AIDA fleet has been sailing the world's oceans since 1996 and has been very successful on the German cruise market.
It’s expected that a total of 118 cruise ships will call at Invergordon in the 2024 season, down from the 129 which visited in 2023.
However the Highland tourist economy is not expected to feel any ill effects as the vessels are expected to have a higher average number of passengers aboard.
This means that the 221,000 passengers who were reported to have visited in 2023 are predicted to be surpassed this year despite fewer ships – with Port of Cromarty Firth earlier predicting a total of roughly 230,000 tourists this time round.
The season runs until around October 10.
