North-east Fife taps into cruise ship market

BID St Andrews has hosted an event to help local businesses tap into the growing cruise ship market.
Speaker Peter Wilson, Project Manager of CruiseForth, with BID St Andrews Board members (left) Louise Fraser and (right) Lindsey AdamSpeaker Peter Wilson, Project Manager of CruiseForth, with BID St Andrews Board members (left) Louise Fraser and (right) Lindsey Adam
Speaker Peter Wilson, Project Manager of CruiseForth, with BID St Andrews Board members (left) Louise Fraser and (right) Lindsey Adam

It was staged at the Byre Theatre in front of a near sellout attendance - and went down well with the audience.

The evening seminar, held jointly with CruiseForth, was designed to guide and educate local businesses on how to make the most of the growing cruise ship market.

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This year more than 80 cruise ship visits will take place on the Forth and Tay, bringing more than 90,000 passengers and crew.

As well as St Andrews, many passengers will be beginning or ending their cruise on the Forth or the Tay and will require a range of services.

The speaker for the event was Peter Wilson, project Mmnager of CruiseForth - an expert group of Fife volunteers whose main interest is to welcome cruise liner passengers and crews.

They aim to promote local services, shops, restaurants, accommodation and visitor attractions.

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Now in its sixth year, CruiseForth was the 2015 winner of the VisitScotland Thistle Awards ‘Warmest Welcome’ category and recently received the Fife Chamber of Commerce ‘Excellence in Tourism’ Award.

The event was the first of many business information sharing and networking sessions being planned by the new BID St Andrews board.

Alistair Lang, BID Chairman, said: “One of our roles is to provide support for our levy-payers by increasing visitor numbers, engagement and spend as well as building awareness of the town to an ever-wider audience.

“The seminar was the first of a series of initiatives we’ll be delivering over the coming weeks and months with a view to supporting St Andrews businesses. It has provided an excellent start to the training, education and networking events we will host. It gave St Andrews businesses valuable insights and information on how they can best take advantage of this growing sector.”

Peter Wilson said: “We’re delighted to see BID St Andrews working in such a pro-active manner and the more we can do to help St Andrews businesses become more ‘cruise-friendly’ the better.”