Year after year I have reported on the cruise industry and the importance to the Cornwall economy. What about the dredging? The buzzword this year appears to be “ongoing”.

The 2015 cruise season ended with the arrival of Fred Olsen’s Boudicca berthing on County wharf. In terms of ship numbers this has been a mediocre year down on 2014.

Phil Boddy, chairman of the Falmouth Cruise Ship Ambassadors, a volunteer group of men and women, who provide a warm welcome and tourist information to passengers has sent me some interesting statistics for the 2014/15 cruise ship seasons.

For comparison the 2014 figures are bracketed, 2015 21 ships (23), 10,465 passengers landed (12,417), crew 5,101 (6,210,) number of tours around Cornwall 126 (167), 28 (24) shuttle buses took passengers to town and back to ship.

The number of foot passengers that went into town was 6,981 (8,000). Unfortunately due to weather there were a number of cancelled calls including the mega cruise ship Norwegian Star in September that would have boosted the figures.

Next year the port can expect a similar set of statistics as Falmouth hovers between 20 and 25 ships each year.

With over 40 calls this year St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly is the Southwest’s top cruise ship destination.

St Mary’s harbour master Dale Clark said: “Looking ahead to next year we have 25 confirmed bookings and fully expect this number to rise to a similar figure to this year.

The Islands certainly have recognised the importance of the cruise ship industry to the local economy and continue to work together to improve the first time experience that the passengers have during their short visit here with an aim of enticing them back for a longer stay to explore these beautiful Islands at their leisure.”

At the other end of the UK Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, completed the 2015 season ended with 41 ships.

This port is expecting a record year in 2016 with 70 ships booked in including P&O’s Azura 115,000 tons and Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Silhouette 122,210 tons which will bring nearly 6,000 passengers between them. Advanced bookings for Lerwick in 2017 are already up to 28 ships.

Falmouth’s comparison port if the dredging went ahead, the Port of Cork welcomed 50 ships half of them mega cruise ships of over 100,000 tons this year.

The figures speak volumes as another year without dredging consent draws to an end.

Captain Mike McCarthy chairman of Cruise Europe addressing a cruise conference in Hamburg said: “When it comes to port infrastructure it cannot afford to fall behind the evolution of ship design. A ship can be built in two years and it could take a port six years to plan and deliver new infrastructure.” Or in Falmouth’s case 13 years.