Leading cruise authority, Cruise Critic, has announced the winners of the annual Cruise Critic Cruisers' Choice Destination Awards with St. Peter Port ranking as a top five destination in its category.

The awards name the best cruise destinations of the year across 15 regions around the world and are based entirely on customer reviews posted to Cruise Critic.com.

Travellers have ranked Guernsey's picturesque and historic capital fourth out of all cruise destinations based in the British Isles and Western Europe. 

VisitGuernsey is delighted that St Peter Port has been acknowledged in the prestigious awards, especially as the awards are voted for by consumers. The cruise market is an integral part of the tourist board strategy to drive visitor numbers and revenue and recent investment to improve disembarking passenger infrastructure and the on-shore experience has clearly paid dividends with passengers. With increased meet and greet services, enhanced disembarkation points and facilities and new tours and excursions offered that fit with the cruise schedules VisitGuernsey has proactively developed specific product to entice and cater for the cruise market.

This has resulted in increased numbers with cruise ship numbers and passenger numbers on the increase with 113 ships due to visit the nominated St Peter Port in 2017 – an increase of 13 from 2016.

“Picking a cruise itinerary isn't easy, particularly given the increasing number of amazing destinations accessible by cruise,” explains Adam Coulter, UK managing editor, Cruise Critic. “Analysing first-hand visitor feedback of cruise destinations world-wide enables us to identify those they loved most, which is true testament to their appeal. By sharing this insight, we hope to inspire and guide travellers to select a cruise itinerary, which they too, will love.”

“We are delighted that St Peter Port has been recognised by Cruise Critic's reviewers. The site is a leading authority on the cruise market with regular cruisers as their audience so this is a real testament to the experience St Peter Port is offering passengers and an acknowledgment of the investment allocated to this key tourism market.” Wendy Pedder, marketing manager, CruiseGuernsey.

Cruise Critic Member Quotes:

“Warm welcome, picturesque town with lots of good shopping, intriguing alleyways and good places to eat. Also a castle to explore.” - Cruise Critic member 'Beenwalking'

“Warm, scenic, friendly and fascinating blend of England and France, full of historic old buildings and a shopping paradise. Easy to walk around.” - Cruise Critic member 'VikingExplorer'

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Notes to Editors

VisitGuernsey confirmed that the number of scheduled cruise ship visits for 2017 will top the scheduled  2016 with a projected 113 ships visiting and 171,257 disembarkations. This represents an increase of 13 ships and 38,304 passengers. For 2017 Carnival UK will be the top caller to Guernsey with over 30 calls during the season followed by Princess with 13 calls.

This means that for the second year running CLIA has confirmed that Guernsey will be the UK's most popular port of call. In 2016 1.17 million cruise passengers visited UK ports with Guernsey's St Peter Port welcoming 132,953 of these and Clyde being the second most visited port attracting 108,866 visitors.

For further general information on Guernsey, visit www.visitguernsey.com

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