TOMORROW Inverclyde welcomes the ‘Sea Princess’ as part of her 106-day round-the-world cruise.

The ship set off from Sydney in Australia back in May and her itinerary includes Sri Lanka, Turkey, Spain, Canada and Chile, before returning to Australia where her passengers will disembark in Brisbane in September.

Greenock is her only port-of-call in Scotland.

Ocean Terminal is enjoying its busiest ever cruise season, and by the end of the year, will have become the first Scottish port to welcome over 100,000 passengers.

That is an increase of 14 per cent on last year, which is great news for Greenock and of course for the local economy in Inverclyde.

When you think that the numbers of cruise ships calling here has trebled from 19 in 2007 to the 56 vessels planned for this year, the importance of the port as a gateway for overseas visitors is clear.

Many passengers arriving in Greenock will board a bus or catch the train to experience a taste of Scotland, heading for Glasgow, Loch Lomond or perhaps Stirling or Edinburgh.

But an increasing number choose to stay in Greenock – along with many of the 25,000 crew members that pass through – to enjoy a warm welcome and our Inverclyde hospitality.

And what a welcome they receive! The Inverclyde Tourist Group – working alongside the team at Greenock Cruise Terminal – do an outstanding job greeting passengers as they arrive, passing on vital local information and acting as tour guides around some of Inverclyde’s attractions.

All of their hard work has helped Greenock’s growing popularity as a place to visit and enhanced its growing reputation as a point of departure for Scottish passengers wanting to travel from a local port on their doorstep without the expense and inconvenience of a flight to a long journey to the south coast of England. Given the planned investment of more than £14 million in Ocean Terminal as part of the City Deal initiative, Greenock and Inverclyde can only go from strength to strength.