Port Aberdeen (Scotland) is set for a major tourist boost with its newly-expanded harbour due to welcome more than 25 cruise ship visits in the coming months.
The GBP 400 million South Harbour, which is both larger/deeper, has been the largest marine infrastructure project in the UK.
The first cruise ship call will be the 202-m/663-ft-long AIDAaura which has passenger capacity 1200+, on April 28th. It is estimated the April-September visits could be worth GBP 1.5 million.
The AIDA liner's booked calls so far for 2023 could bring ~12000 tourists to Aberdeen.
The Port's CEO Bob Sanguinetti said they were delighted to welcome a host of new cruise ships in the maiden year of South Harbour.
"We expect to see year-on-year increases in the number of cruise calls as we ramp up our capacity and capability."
VisitAberdeenshire's CEO Chris Foy described the opening of the South Harbour to cruise ships in 2023 as a "timely boost" to the tourism/hospitality sector.
The new deepwater harbor is due for completion later in 2023.