Falkland Islands cruise tourism threat

The cruise season for the Falkland Islands which ended in April was another record year for the South Atlantic UK territory with more and more large vessels putting into Port Stanley. Once again the ‘day record’ was broken when nearly 5,000 passengers came ashore from three ships. However, this boom in tourism is a double-edged sword. Although cruise tourism this last season generated a £3m spend by the passengers coming ashore, Stanley’s infrastructure is not geared up to having such a large number of people in town at the same time and investment needs to be carried out here. However, there is a dark cloud on the horizon with the pending restrictions on large cruise ships operating in Antarctic waters and a limitation on the numbers of passenger ashore at any one time. This will ultimately mean that many of the larger ships will drop Antarctica from their schedules, which will have a knock-on effect on Falkland’s cruise tourism. Sphere: Related Content