Forth Ports delegation to encourage cruise liners to ‘Dock in the City of Design’ at international trade event in Miami

Dundee’s ambition to become the cruise capital of Scotland is about to receive another major boost, The Courier can reveal.

A team from Dundee Port owner Forth Ports is heading to the cruise industry’s most significant worldwide event in the USA next month to promote Dundee as the “key” to accessing tourism in Scotland.

The campaign, being pitched at Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami from April 8 to 11, also aims to persuade cruise liners to ‘Dock in the City of Design’ – a profile that has been raised following the opening of the V&A Museum and accolades such as Dundee being named the UK’S first Unesco City of Design.

Rob Mason, 39, formerly head of cruise and now senior commercial manager for Forth Ports Scotland, said the growing draw of Dundee was testimony to the partnership working going on in and around the city.

He said the recent investment in the Port of Dundee’s infrastructure would also be showcased to try and encourage more of the bigger cruise ships to dock in the city.

However, while Dundee is very much “openforbusiness” intermsofattracting the largest vessels, he said there could be “some marine restrictions” for the biggest ships which could be handled on a “case-by-case basis”.

“We are going to relaunch Dundee Cruise at Trade Miami this year,” said Rob.

“We have established a really strong Capital Cruising brand which has really knitted together our operations in Edinburgh and London. We’ve seen tremendous growth.

“But we feel Dundee has so much to offer – it almost requires its own brand in a way.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for the last six months and we’ll plan to launch that at the Sea Trade in Miami which is the international event of the year where cruise operators and ports converge to do business.”

Rob said they would be pitching Dundee as the “key to Scotland” because it has direct access to Scotland’s major transport lines and because the city is only90minutesfrommanyofscotland’s “incredible” five-star attractions.

Describing Dundee as a “very unique connected city”, the V&A and £1 billion waterfront regeneration were key selling points.

However, its proximity to the “essence of Scotland” would also be promoted ranging from “glassy lochs, historic castles and the Cairngorms National Park” to accessing the capital Edinburgh itself.

“It’s very much an opportunity for the cruise lines to come to Dundee and really experience everything that Scotland’s got to offer,” he added.

“Another one of our strap lines will be to ‘Dock in the City of Design’.

“Dundee has just been listed amongst the top 10 cities in Europe as a thriving hub of culture, design and excellence by Lonely Planet Guide. You’ve got the V&A and it’s also the first Unesco City of Design.

“Sotherearealotofstrandstodundee and the surrounding hinterland.

“Basically, what we’ve done is work with our local partners to knit some key messaging and look to relaunch that.

“But on top of that, you are able to dock in the city itself. You can basically walk in to the city.”

Rob said Forth Ports had “really strong relationships” with local business organisations.

He added: “In terms of some of the work we are doing as a group in terms of offshore wind and oil decommissioning capability, there’s a lot of synergy with how we attract large ships and what we are doing around ensuring that we are investing in the latest technology, whether that be virtual navigational buoys or the new port entry system at Dundee.”

As well as Dundee, Forth Ports look after Tilbury Docks in London, the ports of Leith and Rosyth and has anchorages in the Forth at Newhaven and South Queensferry – actively promoting cruise transit calls and cruise turnaround calls.

Forth Ports is now the second largest UK cruise operator with about 226 calls and 350,000 passengers per annum.

On top of that, in Scotland there has been “huge growth” with a 50% increase in the customer base since 2015 and 75% increase in cruise calls, Rob said.

In Dundee, half of calls are driven by the cruise turnaround business – that’s currently around six per year. Turnaround cruises involve passengers