SOUTHAMPTON'S success as the hub for the UK's multi-million-pound cruising industry is being further boosted by a brand new glossy handbook aimed at all the major international ship operators.

For the first time Associated British Ports (ABP), owners and operators of Southampton docks, is targeting top cruising executives with a dedicated publication highlighting the advantages of the city as a base for the vessels.

Over the coming weeks hundreds of copies of the brochure will be landing on the desks at corporate headquarters in Europe and the US as well as being distributed at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Conference under way in Miami this week.

Doug Morrison, Southampton's port director, said: "It is an incredibly exciting time for the port of Southampton's cruise business.

"The last few years have seen some huge increases in the number of vessels passing through the port, and all indications suggest that this growth will continue in the future.

Southampton has some admirable facilities to cater for the world's largest cruise companies. As an award-winning turnaround port dedicated to working closely with our customers, we have also made some capital investments to accommodate our present customers' business needs."

To cater for Southampton's rapid growth in cruise volumes over the last six years, ABP has ploughed more than £10m in wide-ranging refurbishment programmes at the Queen Elizabeth II Terminal in the Eastern Docks and the Mayflower Terminal in the Western Docks.

It has also spent £2m on constructing a third dockside facility, the City Cruise Terminal while a fourth terminal is a possibility for the future.

Last year passenger throughput reached a record level of 702,000 but this total is expected to be pushed even higher in 2006 as a result of increased numbers of ship calls in Southampton.