‘Leisure Excursions for Cruise & Conference,’ led by Southampton City Council, welcomed around 50 delegates to attend their first Cruise Business Seminar in Southampton Harbour Hotel last week.

The seminar, dedicated to bolstering the UK cruise excursion offering by developing the local marketable products, enabled businesses working with the cruise industry to learn more about best practice when it comes to packaging their product. It also opened up opportunities for attendees to network and explore how to work in collaboration with other business partners to build an experience.

Kay Greenway, Director of Cruise Britain, delivered a presentation summarising today’s global cruise industry with key highlights including a significant 62% increase in the demand for cruising from 2005 to 2015, and identifying the four dominant source markets as US, Germany, Britain and Australia. Kay also highlighted Southampton’s scope for potential as a cruise port as it has already been identified as Europe’s busiest turnround port.

The full day seminar welcomed Samantha Richardson, Director of England’s Coasts, Andrew Bateman, Director of Visit Hampshire on behalf of England’s Literary Greats Project and Emalene Hickman, Culture Southampton on behalf of the Mayflower 400 to introduce their respective projects, highlighting their value and potential in terms of boosting UK inbound tourism opportunities.

For more information about the event contact Laura Campbell on laura@lauracampbell.biz

PHOTO: Left to right: Lauren Folbigg (InterCruises), Jack Brooke (Intercruises), Katie Ellis (European Cruise Service UK), Laura Campbell (Project Manager, Leisure excursions for Cruise and Conference), Anthea Desmond (Excursions Ltd.), Nick Robshaw (European Cruise Service UK) and Heather Forbes (Excursions Ltd.)