Major cruise ships plan to make Galway a regular stop

Date Published: 21-Mar-2011

BY ENDA CUNNINGHAM

Some of the biggest cruise liner companies in the world – which carry hundreds of thousands of passengers each year – want to include the planned new Galway Port on their travel itinerary.

In fact, a spokesperson for the Galway Harbour Company who spoke with liner representatives said: “They all want to come to Galway”.

And at a cruise ship convention in Florida last week, representatives of ‘The World’ – the biggest residential cruise ship on the seas – expressed strong interest in docking here.

Eamon Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Galway Harbour Company and Harbour Master Brian Sheridan were at the ‘SeaTrade Cruise Shipping Convention’ in Miami last week, and had “very positive discussions” with some of the world’s biggest cruise ship operators.

Meanwhile, plans for the €200 million redevelopment of Galway Port are progressing rapidly, with liners expected to be docking in the city by 2015.

“We spoke with a representative for ‘The World’ who wants to come to Galway … there was a lot of interest and questions like would the city be able to facilitate entertaining the volume of people aboard, are the restaurants there etc.

“We were four days at the convention – there is a lot of competition with Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Belfast and Derry all vying for business. But they all want to come to Galway.

“Regent, Silver Sea and Carnival – they’re the biggest operators – all want to come to Galway. These companies are constantly looking for new locations, and if you have a medieval city where you are just minutes to the city centre, absolutely they want to come here,” said Mr Bradshaw.

‘The World’ travels the globe throughout the year, visiting up to 50 countries, with up to 300 residents and their guests regularly on board. Prices for onboard apartments range from $600,000 to $3m, while a presidential suite is valued at $13.5m.

A planning application for the new Galway Port under Strategic Infrastructural Development legislation is expected to be lodged in May or June – at the moment, the Harbour Company is assessing a preliminary report from An Bord Pleanála.

The project, which will be completed in four phases over seven years, will see the creation of a new ‘Waterfront City’, with up to 200,000 tourists arriving each year on around 50 cruise liners.

Read more in this week’s Connacht Sentinel