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Liverpool Cruise Terminal Lunch debate into the Pier Head. There won’t probably be a huge amount of direct jobs created but it affects how people think when they invest and where to site their businesses. Chris: Visitors are getting a good retail offer, a good culture experience, and have sport on your doorstep, the football, the golf course, the racing; the whole package is quite phenomenal. It is in its early days but it’s all starting to gel and work together. We often talk about Liverpool plc but I think that as a brand it is just starting to gel. If
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We’ve got fantastically ambitious targets for tourism over the next 10 years, we foresee tourism growing from 2.8 billion in the wider region to 4.2 billion and a further 14,000 jobs expected, but we can only see that if we manage to tap into this wider discretionary tourist, who doesn’t have to come to Liverpool for something specific.
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you get people to the city with the experience and welcome that is so great, 95 out of 100 people will return. If you look at people coming into the city now, why do they come to shop at Liverpool ONE against the Trafford Centre? Because they want to do more than just shopping. So we’re building on that whole day out experience. What are the financial implications of having a turnaround service? Jayne: Economically we’re likely to have to payback something between £4-6 million of the public grant and the city would have to do that. But we’ve done our sums and we’ve worked on the premise that the amount of business we can generate and the charges we can charge at the port would allow us to just about generate enough income to pay that back, so it’s not about taxpayers having to fund it,
it will be covered by its own income. If we have to build something wholly as a separate building then the costs would be quite substantial given that it’s a world heritage site and you just can’t throw up a shed, maybe £10 million just for a building that would house passengers. If we’re going to be ambitious and think about bigger ships, the 2500 people ones, you would have to build something reasonably substantial but you don’t have to build that straightaway. We’ve got great partners like Peel who can help us with the land so I’m less concerned about building a new facility. What is Liverpool doing to increase tourism to the city centre? Chris: Liverpool ONE, from a tourism perspective, is all about the overall offer you can get here and being joined up with all the other partners in the city to deliver a consistent service. Pam: We’re looking at particularly increasing tourism mid-week. The accommodation offer at Liverpool ONE is very good, they have Novotel, the Hilton, which regularly fill up and the Premier Inn still to come so Liverpool ONE plays an important role in bringing in tourism mid-week. Chris: I don’t think the international visitor will drive brands to Liverpool, like Selfridges and Harvey Nicholls. For us it’s more about attracting new brands into the UK, who are new to the North West, that gives us the added edge over other retail destinations. After London the question is where are they going to open up their second store? It used to be Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh but more often than not now it’s becoming Liverpool. How is the city promoting the benefits of having the turnaround service to Government? Jayne: The Government are not looking so much at tourism. They are looking at the private sector taking over public sector, actually that’s a perfect economic argument here because it’s not about the public sector this is about the private sector. So we’re making the argument on a long term economic plan. It is a ministerial decision. Chris: In some ways, ‘can we afford not to do it’ is the other question and that’s difficult to
substantiate. The city has grown massively over the last 10 years but it has to continue to grow. Peel has done a great job but that’s a very long phase programme and we have to get some more new blood in to the city economically. A lot of other cities don’t have the waterfront and we have to use that. Jayne: Absolutely, that whole waterfront is an asset that many cities would kill for. The whole of Peel’s Liverpool Waters is predicated upon inward investment, and probably foreign investment not displacement from somewhere else in the UK. And I think that’s where something like the cruise liner terminal has an extra bonus because if you’re talking about Chinese or American investment, having the ability to arrive by cruise ship is a really great thing and that happens in other cities around the world. Pam: The Mersey is a really difficult river to animate as it’s a very wide river with a huge rise and fall of tide making it difficult to do things on, whereas a cruise liner is just right for the river. It looks good and it’s big add to the overall impression of the waterfront. When you’ve got a cruise liner it looks like another building down there, it’s another part of the spectacle that draws people to the waterfront.
MARITIME DINING ROOMS Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock, Liverpool, L3 4AQ
Our panel enjoyed the light lunch at this top ten Liverpool restaurant recommended in the Michelin Guide. This unique restaurant set in the museum enjoys breathtaking, panoramic views of the Albert Dock from one side and on the other side a sweeping vista of the River Mersey. The refreshing, seasonal lunch we enjoyed included a delicious, traditional asparagus omelette served with parmesan and rocket salad with sides of salad, ciabatta and chips. One of the panellists had the head chef recommendation mushroom and spring garlic soup with a cheese and spring onion sandwich on chunky granary bread. The main lunch has a wider variety of seasonal food. The Maritime Dining Rooms is also a very popular events venue, with the restaurant available for hiring for events, conferences, and weddings. To reserve a table telephone 0151 478 4056.
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