Around 100,000 cruise ship passengers to visit Iceland in summer 2013

The summer cruise season is shaping up to be a busy one for Iceland. According to a Visir report issued on Tuesday 5 March, cruise firms have already confirmed that at least 84 vessels will visit Icelandic ports this summer. Officials say the trend will likely mean a record number of cruise visits following the previous record set just last year.

The head of Faxafloahafnir, which operates Reykjavik’s cruise ports, said that the growth comes thanks to major marketing efforts in recent years. He added that 2013 is likely to see in excess of 100,000 tourists arriving by cruise, up from about 90,000 in 2012.

Faxafloahafnir chairman Gisli Gislason told the media, “The summer looks really good, but 84 ships have announced their arrival here, which is similar to last year. The ships that will arrive this summer are however bigger and carry more passengers. Already 67 ships have announced their arrival during the summer of 2013, so it looks like we are going to have good seasons ahead of us in regards to cruise ships,” News of Iceland reports.