Guernsey's scheduled cruise liner visits rise

Almost 150,000 cruise ship passengers are scheduled to visit the Bailiwick of Guernsey during 2013.

Between April and October 103 liner visits are scheduled to Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm.

In 2011 there were 91 scheduled visits, with 29 being cancelled due to bad weather and itinerary changes.

Capt Peter Gill, Guernsey's harbour master, said: "It was a very poor year in weather terms and affected virtually every aspect of our activities."

He said: "It wasn't just the cruise liners, visiting yachts as well were significantly down on previous years, in fact last year was the worst since 1987."

Investigations into plans for a cruise liner berth off Guernsey, estimated to cost between £60m and £80m, are due to form part of the harbour master plan, which is due to be released this year.

Currently passengers are ferried between the cruise liners and Guernsey on tenders carried by the ships.

Capt Gill said: "In terms of a destination port in the UK, Guernsey is the most visited, it is the most popular... the cruise liner operators have made it quite clear to us they are very keen to come here."