Maritime industry consultant David Cheslin has witnessed the changes in Dover’s role over the last decades as the town has come to terms with the tunnel and the low-cost airlines.

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“I would say Dover’s passenger traffic is now largely UK holiday-makers touring the Continent in their own cars,” says Cheslin. “As well as holiday-makers, you have coach operators whose passengers include pensioners, schoolchildren and Eastern Europeans. UK pensioners like to get onto a coach near where they live and know it will bring them back to their doorsteps two weeks later. Not for them the lugging of suitcases through airports such as Stansted where the gates always seem to be miles away. As well as the oldies, many British schoolchildren still travel by coach when they travel on holiday to the near-continent.”

The great disparity in alcohol and cigarette duties between Britain and France, coupled with the ease of access from the national motorway network offered by the M20 from London, allows day-trippers to take ferries to visit French hypermarkets and acquire carloads of inexpensive drink to bring into the UK. In the 1980s the practice acquired the nickname “booze cruises,” a title still used to describe these day-trips.

Eastern European workers and students looking for the cheapest form of transport home have also become a major element of traffic through the port to Calais. Official figures from London’s Victoria coach station show that there are 60 to 70 arrivals each week from Eastern Europe, with an equal number returning through the port carrying homebound passengers. Cheslin points out that the tunnel railway service has, in practice, only really taken traffic from the London-Paris-Brussels air services.

In Dover itself, public discussions are being held on how to bring town and port closer together for the benefit of both parties. The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has met with partner agencies, including Dover District Council, Dover Harbor Board, English Partnerships, Kent County Council and Dover Pride to discuss development and regeneration proposals to secure the future of the town. Under discussion has been a vision that connects Dover’s “string of pearls”—its landmark tourist sites, history and the port terminals. A spectacular tower may be built off the York Street traffic roundabout as a landmark, visitors’ center, lookout point and headquarters of Port Control. Councilor Paul Watkins, leader of Dover District Council, has told the press that the project to construct a landmark tower is a first for the town and reflects the air of confidence moving through Dover. These are long-term projects that will move Dover up the economic ladder and make a difference to local people.

Dover is today the second busiest cruise port in the UK, welcoming more than 170,000 cruise passengers a year. This position has been cemented by the news that the world’s largest cruise line has chosen Dover as a base for its first Northern Europe cruise program, which will commence in July 2008. Carnival Cruise Lines’ new 113,300-ton Carnival Splendor will operate a program of six cruises following its delivery voyage to Dover in summer 2008. On arrival it will become the largest cruise ship to berth at the port.

Carnival plans to offer a series of 12-day cruises to Northern Europe in 2008 and would like to do the same in 2009 and beyond, according to Terry Thornton, vice president of marketing planning for the line. Dover was selected because of its convenience for both North American and European passengers and the easy access of good air service into London.

This article by James Graham was originally published in the January 2008 issue of British Heritage Magazine. For more great articles, subscribe to British Heritage magazine today!

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