UK holidaymakers continue to pick cruising as one of their top choices, with 1.25 million Brits expected to take an ocean voyage this year.

Southampton, the centre of the British cruising industry, continues to reap millions of pounds worth of business from the city-based vessels which also safeguard more than 2,000 shore-side jobs in and around the port.

The Passenger Shipping Association (PSA), the trade body representing the cruise lines, estimates that by 2008 the annual total will increase to 1.5 million at a time when the traditional package foreign holiday market is contracting.

Bill Gibbons, director of the PSA, said: "This shows the resilient appeal of cruising, which increased its equivalent share of the holiday market to 5.6 per cent last year.

"Looking ahead at 2006, it's already been such an exciting year.

"We have recently seen the launch of the largest cruise ship in the world, Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas, in Southampton, and expect it to appeal to a huge diverse market, including people who have never considered cruising before.

"Fred Olsen Cruise Lines has also launched its new ship, Boudicca, which is due in the city's port later in the year.

"It looks to be a very strong year and I can confidently say there will be a 17 per cent year-on-year increase in ocean cruising to 1.25 million at the end of 2006."

Numbers of people who took a cruise that left from a UK port in 2005, as opposed to flying to an overseas departure point, also increased.

This can be attributed to Southampton's P&O Cruises increasing capacity, while Royal Caribbean International and Princess Cruises based ships in the city, specifically for the UK market, for the first time.