A ship due to berth at Lerwick Harbour in February has been hailed as the earliest start yet to the cruise season in Scotland as the leisure sector sets a course for recovery from the Covid pandemic.
Swiss-based Viking Cruises has booked five visits to the Shetland port in the first quarter of the year with its new-build ship, Viking Venus, starting with its maiden call at Mair’s Pier on 3 February.
The 745ft Viking Venus “small ship”, which offers accommodation for just over 900 guests, will be undertaking 12-day ‘In Search of Northern Lights’ cruises, departing Tilbury, England, via Lerwick, to Bergen, Norway, taking in that country’s far north regions.
The arrival of the vessel marks the first port of call for the wider Scottish cruise season since reopening last July following a 17-month Covid-related suspension.
The port has seen rare arrivals of cruise ships in late February and March, but the main season usually kicks off in April, the harbour confirmed.
In a second boost, Viking Cruises have so far booked 20 calls at Lerwick this season, the highest number by a single operator in decades of the Shetland port servicing the sector.
Vote of confidence
Lerwick Port Authority (LPA) cruise & marketing manager Melanie Henderson said: “We see the Viking programme, with its early start and high number of bookings, as a vote of confidence in the harbour and Shetland, including the way the restart was handled through 2021.”
The global cruise industry was an early victim of the pandemic as the virus began its spread in 2020, with the Foreign Office issuing guidance to Britons aged 70 or older and those with pre-existing health conditions to avoid cruise ship travel during the outbreak.
The advice followed a number of lockdowns on cruise ships around the globe due to Covid-19 outbreaks on board.
LPA said there are currently more than 100 ships lined up to call at at the port this year, which could mean record numbers of passengers, vessels, and tonnage of shipping.
Ms Henderson said the recovery in bookings gave “great encouragement” to harbour stakeholders on post-Covid recovery as well as the possibilities of extending the cruising season.
“It gives great encouragement to everyone involved to see the recovery in our overall bookings for 2022 and that activity is on the way back, albeit with some Covid measures still in place, such as shore excursion ‘bubbles’ in the short term,” she said.
“Interest from the industry to develop Scotland’s cruise potential adds to our hopes that February and March sailings can be built into an annual winter cruising itinerary, extending the established window for visits to Lerwick.”