According to the Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Council has announced plans to pay back the £9 million grant used to build the city centre cruise terminal in order to offer cruises turnarounds beginning this summer.
Due to legislation in place to keep competition fair, Liverpool's new dock has been unable to offer cruise turnarounds, due to being publicly funded, as it would be competing with privately funded ports such as Southampton. The city council have been at loggerheads to gain permission to use the cruise terminal as a departure port and have finally approved plans to pay back some, if not all, the government grant — somewhere between £5 million and £9 million.
Council leader Councillor Joe Anderson said: "I am very excited about what will be a new era for us... I have written to the shipping minister Mike Penning to confirm we will abide by whatever the independent panel rules we should repay... It is my vision to grow the cruise industry for Liverpool to match the halcyon days of the past."
Liverpool does already have an embarkation terminal at the Langdon dock in Bootle, though the facility is run down and suffers from tidal issues, as large ships can't access the port at low tide. The new terminal boasts a better, more accessible location, and more modern facilities. Turning it into a departure point, as opposed to a day visits terminal, would be a big boost to the local economy — estimates are that each ship based in Liverpool's central terminal would be worth around £1.2 million per year to the city.
Fred Olsen has announced that they will be offering 10 cruises onboard Boudicca from Liverpool in 2012, between April and August, offering a variety of destinations that include mini-cruises and sailings to the Canary Islands. Cruise and Maritime have also been linked with the terminal as a departure point, and if the city can get the plans approved, they plan to offer 11 sailings from Liverpool this summer, including cruises to Norway, the Baltic and the Canary Islands.
With Belfast taking on two cruises during 2013, Southampton's prominence and the likes of Harwich, Dover, Portsmouth and Leith all offering cruises during 2012 and 2013, is the cruise industry going down the route of offering local departure points, similar to flights? Let's hope so, the easier it is to get onboard the better!
Written by Stephen Adam
© Iglucruise
Source: Liverpool Daily Post