#cruiseliners - The Port of Cork has lost its status as the most popular destination for overseas tourists visiting Ireland on cruise ships after a 12.4% drop in the number of passengers last year.
New figures writes the Irish Examiner, show that 89,686 passengers were on board liners which stopped at either the cruise ship terminal in Cobh or the deepwater berth in Ringaskiddy in 2016 – down from 102,217 the previous year.
The decrease in visits to Cork from cruise ship passengers last year is unexpected as in overall figures 2016 was a record year for Irish tourism with the number of overseas visitors up 8.8% to more than 8.7 million. The total number of cruise ships stopping in Cork remained the same as in 2015, at 57 vessels.
It is estimated the visits of such cruise liners contribute around €4m annually to the Cork economy. Cork had overtaken Dublin as the main port of call for cruise ships visiting Irish waters in 2015 — the year when it broke the 100,000 figure for the first time.
For newspaper has more on the story here.
