Cruise liner passengers will have free rein to roam the streets of Orkney for the first time since the pandemic began.
The ship Celebrity Silhouette and its 600 passengers will arrive in the county today.
The first of the huge ships arrived in Orkney on July 30, kicking off a new season of visits – the first for more than 18 months.
However, during these initial visits the passengers have been travelling around Orkney in “bubble” shore excursions.
This cautionary measure means they only saw Kirkwall town centre from the inside of a vehicle.
‘The logical next step is having the liner passengers back on the street’
With the further easing of restrictions across Scotland this week, it is expected that many of the companies running the cruise liners will opt to let their passengers roam free – a move being welcomed by Orkney Islands Council’s head of marine services, transportation and harbour master Jim Buck.
“It’s all gone really well so far”, he said.
“It’s actually going so well that the logical next step is to go on to the next level which would be having the liner passengers back on the street.
“This is something the cruise liner companies have to look at themselves. Obviously, it’s up to them how they run things, some cruise liners will be moving to that way of doing things before others.”
Mr Buck said the council has not had to undertake any special measures ahead of welcoming the footfall back and the authority will be continuing to work with the liners to check people on and off the ships and oversee the use of sanitation stations.
Asked if the number of cruise liner passengers coming into the Orkney town will be limited in any way, he said they wouldn’t but added that the liners are still operating at reduced capacity.
Mr Buck was also asked how he felt the locals were feeling about the ships being back. He said he has picked up on arguments where people want to keep the liners out, but this seemed based on arguments around climate change rather than economics.
He added: “The biggest opinion seems to be that we should let passengers in to visit the shops. We’ll be happy to do that, but it is up to the liner operators as they make the decisions about managing those on board.”
