WHILE large ships have been using Bantry Bay as a safe haven for hundreds of years at this stage, the sight of a cruise liner making its way into the port remains a relatively new one.

In 2017, the MV Prinsendam made her maiden call into Bantry, carrying approximately 800 passengers and becoming the first liner to do so in almost 30 years. Since then, thousands of tourists have arrived into the bay on cruise ships as the demand and interest in West Cork as a tourist destination has grown.

The MV Prinsendam was one of five cruise ships to anchor at Bantry in 2017. That number grew to nine in 2018, with 8,000 passengers, and has been growing ever since, with Baltimore, Schull and Castletownbere also hosting their first cruise liners in recent years. Bantry Bay Port say the plan is to welcome 25,000 visitors in the coming years, at a benefit of €2.5 million to the local economy.

‘It’s very positive going forward,’ said Michael Murphy, assistant harbour master at Bantry Bay Port. ‘We have good numbers for this year, good numbers for next year with a lot of repeat business as well and five-star cruise vendors with a boutique kind of style coming into Bantry, they’re not the normal run of the mill ships, so it’s very positive.’

Ten ships and over 8,000 passengers and crew visited in 2019, but numbers dropped at the port in 2020, for the same reasons they did across the rest of West Cork as the pandemic landed on our shores and lockdowns ensued.

‘Two years ago it was exceptional – we take that as being from people who were locked down during COVID and booking holidays once that lifted, and we had 23 cruise liners that year,’ Murphy said. ‘We have 12 this year after a couple of cancellations and we have that number again already for next year, but there’s a good chance that will increase.’

Cruise scheduling works on a two-year basis, with the port hoping to welcome as many as 30 ships by 2028. ‘We don’t have complete numbers for that yet but I’d be expecting liners going from 150m in length all the way up to 235m, which brings in about two to two and a half thousand passengers each go.’

Getting the port to a position where it can accommodate these ships on a regular basis was years in the making, and follows the Port Of Cork’s success in turning Cobh into a modern destination which now welcomes over 170,000 cruise passengers a year. In 2014, the Bantry Bay Port Company was formed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Port of Cork Company, and with the handover Bantry received funding to improve its infrastructure.

The €3.3m wasn’t spent immediately with a lot of research going into what would best serve the long-term future of Bantry, and was eventually used to raise a 20-year loan of €9m. Some of the money was used to dredge the inner harbour, with the dredged materials put to good use to create a large amenity area of reclaimed land at the mouth of the harbour.

Most of the loan was used towards the building of the €8.5 million marina and pier, which opened in 2017 with the help of funding from the Department of Transport, and a purpose-built facility now enables cruise liners to tender ashore.

The cruise ships are designed to offer passengers everything they could possibly need, but it’s what happens off the boat once it anchors in a port that is the real attraction for visitors.

Excursions Ireland is a tour company that works with cruise liners to offer bespoke packages for tourists onboard the ships.

Excursions Ireland’s managing director Niamh McCarthy told The Southern Star: ‘As our market is mainly US guests at the minute, West Cork is what many of these guests picture Ireland as; traditional small towns, scenic journeys, and the friendliest people. The venues and visitor attractions make them feel welcome and go above and beyond here.

‘Many of our clients also want “off the beaten track” locations, untouched Ireland in areas that others or larger clients aren’t calling to. What benefits West Cork too is that the shore excursion offerings can completely differ to other ports in Cork with the distance in locations, so you don’t have programmes overlapping in Bantry for example with another popular port in Cork, like Cobh. They can call to Cobh one day and Bantry the next and have completely different tour offerings on sale.

A big part of attracting cruise liners passengers to West Cork actually happens well before they even book their trip. ‘When the cruise liners call to an area, they need to ensure shore excursions and products are possible to operate, and will sell well,’ McCarthy said. ‘The money they make from shore excursions may determine which port they call into as it is a top revenue earner onboard.

‘Every year a number of our clients want to come and visit Ireland, so we host them via a familiarisation trip. Over the last three years we see the increased requests, and we would love to host more and receive help to do so as we see the positive results already with more to come,’ she added.

Cruise passengers make up part of the footfall that is crucial to many businesses in the area, and are estimated to spend close to €100 per head while ashore, while crew members spend €30 on average. It’s the kind of business that boosts revenues for businesses reliant on tourism during the summer.

‘We’d love to see more of that kind of tourism traffic coming into West Cork as a whole,’ Cllr Finbarr Harrington (Ind) told The Southern Star. ‘They are of huge benefit, of course, with people coming in and spending money that’s crucial to the survival of the tourism industry. The season can be quite short because we are very weather dependent so any additional footfall is brilliant, but we’d love to see more of it and need to tap into all the great businesses and things to do in the area as well.’

But while numbers have increased in recent years, Cllr Harrington said more effort is needed across the board, with bodies like Tourism Ireland and Fáilte Ireland tasked with promoting the region as a destination.

The Excursions Ireland MD agrees. ‘As much as we would love to, we cannot necessarily promise cruise ship calls as it is up to the cruise line themselves but we do all we can to promote all of Ireland including West Cork as a destination,’ McCarthy said. ‘Excursions Ireland, as a small company commits a significant number of resources, both with revenue and manpower into promoting Ireland, including familiarisations trips to ensure the cruise line clients are looked after, attending workshops, sales calls, in person meetings and anything else that puts Ireland on the top of people’s minds.

‘Cruise line executives have to be invited here to be hosted and shown the beauty that is our little island, this encourages the itinerary planners and shore excursions and product managers to push for Ireland to be included on upcoming itineraries.

‘Once they do, the whole region benefits as there are always calls before and after, once they go to one port, it is likely that they will visit more frequently and if successful add more ports over the years, having a knock-on effect.

‘Whether that’s in one to two years or over the next three to five years. Cruise lines plan so far in advance so sometimes a new client calling to Ireland or even including a new port on their itinerary, has been years in the making with a huge amount of work behind the scenes.’

The experience both passengers and cruise companies are looking for starts the moment they set foot on Bantry’s pier, according to Murphy.

‘These are five-star plus liners so you have to give them that experience. From the minute they leave the ship to go into town or to get onto a bus, we have security and as a port facility we’re certified to bring us up to the Marine Survey Office standard – a lot of the ships now are looking for that, with what’s happening in the Mediterranean and around the world, they don’t want any incidents. That might be why they look at the Ireland experience given we are a peaceful nation and that’s what the passengers are paying the big bucks for.’

Funded under the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

Bantry in bidding for superyacht docking during 2027 Ryder Cup

Aside from cruises, Bantry port is set to become a lot busier next year as a hub for superyachts bringing wealthy visitors to Ireland for the Ryder Cup, which would involve transferring attendees by private helicopter up to Adare Manor in Limerick for the golf showpiece.

The Port of Cork unveiled the plans after holding meetings in Miami with representatives of yachting charter companies ahead of the competition, which takes place from September 13th-19th, 2027.

The event will bring economic benefits in excess of €300m, according to the government. Tickets prices broke previous records when they went on sale last month, with day tickets costing €499 – almost double the cost of tickets for the last Ryder Cup hosted in Europe in 2023. Despite the cost, tickets for Irish applicants sold out in less than an hour after the first round went on sale in late April.

‘Between Bantry and Glengarriff ports we have space for about 20 superyachts at anchor,’ assistant harbour master at Bantry Bay Port Michael Murphy told The Southern Star, with guests then planning on using their onboard helicopters to make the daily trip up to Adare Manor to attend the tournament. ‘It’s about a 20-minute helicopter ride from Bantry to Adare Manor, so we’re promoting that as an option for people at the moment.’

The Adare Manor event will represent the centenary event of the Ryder Cup and will attract superrich attendees from the world of business and entertainment. A heliport will be in operation, accommodating as many as 600 helicopter trips every day.

Bantry also already has a privately-owned airstrip, which was developed by Rowa Pharmaceuticals almost half a century ago for direct transportation between Ireland and Germany. It is expected that this will also be available to taxi visitors to Adare during the Ryder Cup.

Cruise Schedule