Scotland’s most northerly mainland commercial port has underlined its success in attracting luxury cruise ships as passenger numbers increased this year.
Scrabster Harbour also said it expects to welcome 10 cruise ships next year – four more than this year – after it said “bon voyage” to its last scheduled cruise ship of the 2015 season.
The Caithness port welcomed 3,200 cruisers to the area this season. The last of these was Amadea, a 29,008 tonne ship which arrived in the harbour on September 8th from Reykjavik, Iceland with 576 visitors before leaving for Bremerhaven, Germany the next day.
The trust which operates the port said it has now been a decade since Scrabster made the decision to market the port and local area as a cruise destination, and that this strategy has seen more than 23,000 cruise passengers arrive at Scrabster since 2006.
More than £35million has been invested in the harbour over the last 10 years aimed at attracting both luxury tourism to the area as well as lucrative oil and gas work alongside its traditional fish landings. In July, the trust said revenues had risen 16% to £2.8million, with pre-tax profits reaching £500,000.
The investment in the harbour means it can accommodate cruise ships up to 180 metres and 8 metres draft berthing alongside, while larger vessels use the deep water anchorage available within 0.2 nautical miles.
Sandy Mackie, Trust Manager for Scrabster Harbour, said: “Scrabster is a regular port of call for visiting cruise ships and we were delighted to see the increase in passenger numbers this year.
“Over the past decade we have managed to attract visitors equivalent to three times the population of the local Thurso area. We have had a very busy summer period with passengers on the daily ferry link to Orkney increasing by 3% over the peak season.”
The port said it expects 5,000 passengers to the Caithness area next year, with Fred Olsen’s Boudicca being the first scheduled liner of the season next April.
Mr Mackie added: “The increase in bookings for 2016 is not only fantastic for the port but beneficial for the surrounding areas as well.”
Some of the attractions in the region include Castle Mey, the Caithness Horizons museum and the Pulteney Distillery.
Beki Pope, Manager of Caithness Horizons said: “Caithness Horizons Museum always enjoys working with the cruise ship visitors to enhance their visit to the Caithness area. We are looking forward to working with Scrabster Harbour to welcome more cruise visitors in 2016.”
Scrabster Harbour Trust was established in 1841 and is one of the UK’s top whitefish and shellfish landing ports. Scrabster are members of Cruise Scotland and Cruise Europe.