Investment in recent years of more modern and versatile fleets has seen an increase in people travelling by ferry, with some 35 million passengers, eight million cars and over 140,000 coaches carried in 2010.

Central to the campaign will be a series of promotional offers from individual ferry operators which will be announced nearer the dates and also are to be promoted on the www.discoverferries.com website.

National Ferry Fortnight is organised by the UK-based Passenger Shipping Association (PSA) and members include Irish owned-ferry operators: Celtic Link Ferries (Rosslare-Cherbourg) and Irish Ferries (on routes to Wales and direct Irish-France routes).

In addition the following PSA members (operating between them on the Irish Sea, English Channel and the North Sea) are to participate: Brittany Ferries, Condor Ferries, DFDS Seaways, Hovertravel, Isle of Man Steam Packet Co. (IOMSPCo), LD Lines, P&O Ferries, Red Funnel, SeaFrance, Stena Line and Wightlink.