THE man with his hand on the tiller of the UK’s largest cruise fleet has embraced the idea of Liverpool becoming a fully fledged cruising rival to Southampton.

Carnival UK chief executive David Dingle said a “turnaround port” in Liverpool, which could take a slice of Southampton’s lucrative cruise industry, would be an interesting proposition.

He suggested many of the hundreds of thousands of cruise passengers who make the journey down to Southampton would prefer setting sail closer to home.

Any relocation of cruise liners to Liverpool would cause a dent in Southampton’s economy worth millions and threaten jobs.

Liverpool is presently a calling port for just a handful of cruise ships while around 300 ships and one million passengers used Southampton last year to start and end their voyages.

In an interview as chairman of European Cruise Council, Mr Dingle said he was “confused” why Liverpool had invested in port facilities for calling ships as it wasn’t, on the whole, attractive as a “way port”. To base ships in Liverpool made more economic sense, he said.

“The big opportunity is as a turnaround port for people who live in the north of England to start and end their cruise,” he said.

“The only slight concern then is that if you are on southbound cruises, the steaming time to say Gibraltar or the Canaries – the points when you really hit the sunshine – is a bit longer, but some people are happy to trade that off against the convenience of getting on their ship in Liverpool.

“Manchester is 35 miles from Liverpool – it’s over 200 miles to Southampton. It’s got to be of interest, hasn’t it?”

Civic leaders and Southampton port owners ABP, which has invested £41m in the cruise business in the city since 2004, including the new £19m Ocean Terminal, are objecting to a bid by Liverpool City Council to get full turnaround status for its £20m taxpayer funded cruise liner terminal. Liverpool needs Government approval as European funding was used to build it.

A spokesman for Carnival said it had no plans at present to relocate ships from Southampton.

“Southampton is the home port of Carnival UK and we have no plans to move our operations.

“We are greatly invested in the city with Carnival House recently opening to home 1,300 employees and a new 20 year contract with ABP Southampton, which has seen the opening the purpose built Ocean Terminal.”