Only a handful of lines currently offer sailings out of the country, however, Barrhead Travel president Jacqueline Dobson, who is also vice-president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association (SPAA), believes Scotland has the infrastructure to handle more vessels.
"I think it is something [cruise lines] need to look at," Dobson told TTG. "Every time I talk to lines about homeports, it’s always Southampton or Liverpool, or somewhere else in the UK."
She encouraged more lines to consider deploying vessels in Scotland, stressing there was "definitely a market" for more ex-Scotland sailings.
Thorne Travel director Shona Thorne echoed Dobson’s comments, claiming there was "definitely" capacity to have more ships leaving Scotland.
"The new cruise customers we have are a lot younger and are looking for Scotland departures to make a quick start to their holidays," Thorne said. "They loved this in the first year after Covid when we had a number of ships leaving from Scotland."
This year, the Ayrshire agency expects to send more than 300 customers to England by coach or air to board cruise ships.
"The demand is there, and we need cruise lines to look at this as soon as possible to ensure Scotland is not left behind," she stressed.
Founder and owner of LAH Travel Linda Hill Miller said while she agreed with Dobson and Thorne, there were other factors requiring consideration before coming to agreements to sail more ships out of Scotland.
"Scots like the sunshine, so the issue with Scottish departures is it takes four or five days to get to the sun – it makes the itineraries a bit limited," she said.
"When MSC Cruises committed to Scotland in 2021, the support was incredible, but it was in very different circumstances. I’d love to see some of the luxury cruise lines making a commitment."
While cruise continues to perform "very well" for LAH Travel, Miller said direct flights and fly-cruise itineraries remained customers’ most sought-after choices.
