6,000 cruise visitors lined up for Galway
Date Published: {J}
By Dara Bradley Galway Harbour Company has lodged a planning application for the construction of ‘cruise taxi berth’ pontoons at the Docks, as part of its plans to promote Galway City as a potential “worldwide destination for cruise liners”.
In it submission to planners, the Harbour Company says it anticipates 6,000 visitors to arrive into the harbour on 10 separate cruise ships this Summer.
The company says that it needs the new berthing facilities, to be located at the south-eastern end of the New Docks, in order to provide “safe and convenient landing facility for cruise ship passengers to Galway City”.
The application states that last year, three cruise ships arrived in the city but they “did not have the benefit of an appropriate docking facility for passengers”.
In its application it gives a schedule of arrivals of cruise ships: four will arrive in August, two of which will be in Galway on the same day, August 17.
The first cruise ship to arrive is the France registered Le Diamont, carring 226 passengers and 120 crew members. It will be followed by two ships on May 25, including Prince Albert II from Bahamas and Arion, which carries 320 passengers and 130 crews.
For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.