Portsmouth International Port has been named ‘Port of the Year’ at the 2024 Seatrade Cruise awards. This is one of the most prestigious awards in the industry. Voted for by a panel of experts in the sector, Portsmouth faced serious competition from ports across the globe. This is following a record number of nomination for the awards.
Announced at Seatrade Cruise Med 2024 Portsmouth International Port was crowned the winner of the ‘Port of the Year’ category in front of representatives from across the European cruise industry. For over 50 years, Seatrade Cruise has been the gold standard for cruise professionals around the world.
Cllr Steve Pitt, Leader of Portsmouth City Council said:
“I am delighted to hear that Portsmouth has been recognised as an award winning port. The port has gone from strength to strength, with regular calls from high end brands. This includes Virgin Voyages and Saga Cruises, now becoming a familiar sight through the harbour.
The relationship the port has built with their cruise offering has brought a huge benefit to the city and local tourism, with businesses and partners reporting an increase in footfall when a ship is in. Congratulations to the whole team at Portsmouth International Port.”
Andrew Williamson, head of cruise and ferry at Portsmouth International Port said:
“We are all celebrating after a huge win for the port. To be named ‘Port of the Year’ means so much to the whole team. This demonstrates the commitment we’ve shown to developing our cruise offering for customers and passengers. Portsmouth has quickly become the UK home port for boutique, luxury brands looking for a bespoke service.
We also take our role as a municipal port very seriously and have put sustainability at the forefront of everything we do. We are on track with our commitment to becoming the UK’s first zero emission port.”
Portsmouth is set to achieve its busiest cruise season yet, off the back of opening of their brand new sustainable cruise terminal and exponential growth over the last few years. Each cruise call generates £1.5million to Portsmouth’s economy. The profits are going directly back into local services and supporting the city’s tourism.
The council-owned port is also on track to be the first in the UK to provide shore power across multiple berths. This is after securing UK government funding to deliver an innovative sustainable energy project titled Sea Change by Spring 2025.