In 2023, Belfast (Northern Ireland) experienced a record-breaking cruise season, as reported by Cruise Belfast, the collaboration between Belfast Harbour and Visit Belfast responsible for promoting the city as a premier cruise tourism destination.
The announcement coincided with the arrival of 2023's final cruiser - Fred Olsen's ship Borealis, scheduled to dock on October 21st.
Throughout the 2023 cruise season, Belfast welcomed 57 ships from 32 different cruise lines, carrying a total of 320,000 passengers and crew who were warmly received. Among these, 14 ships made their inaugural calls to Belfast.
The 158 cruise ship calls in the 2023 season represented an 8% increase compared to the pre-pandemic record established in 2019. Onboard, passenger capacities averaged around 90% per vessel.
With the increase in passenger numbers and more visitors exploring Northern Ireland's tourism offerings, Cruise Belfast estimates that passenger spending alone injected over GBP 20 million into the local economy.
This year also marked a significant milestone, with the arrival of the 2 millionth cruise visitor to Belfast Harbour since the first cruise ship called in 1996. This milestone passenger arrived aboard the Norwegian Dawn, operated by NCL-Norwegian Cruise Line in May.
As a testament to its growing significance in the cruise industry, Belfast Harbour has begun facilitating several cruise turnarounds/roundtrip itineraries in 2023, including ~1200 Americans from the luxury ship Oceania Riviera.