Cruise holiday boom predicted for Britain

The forecast came in a foreword to a cruise report from Micky Arison, chairman and chief executive of Carnival Corporation which includes cruise companies such as Cunard and P&O Cruises.

Looking 10 years ahead, he said: "I can see no reason why it (the UK cruise market) should not double in size to match the kind of growth the market has experienced in North America.

"This would mean the British taking three million cruises every year compared with the 1.55 million (taken) in 2009".

Mr Arison added that Carnival, whose brands also include Princess Cruises and Holland America Line, was lowering its energy consumption by three to four per cent a year "through a variety of solutions from new paints and hull coatings to simply slowing the ships down".

The cruise report also included a survey of nearly 5,000 cruise passengers carried out for Carnival UK. This showed more than a third of those polled cruise more than once a year and of those surveyed, 90 per cent were 46 years old or older.