Summerside looking to attract cruise ships

Officials with the port of Summerside are working to develop a cruise ship industry.

The port is seeing an increase in commercial traffic, but there hasn't been a cruise ship in the city since 2013 when the Yorktown, with 150 passengers, visited on four separateoccasions.

The president of the board of directors of the Summerside Port Corporation, Arnold Croken, says they are working to get a cruise ship in Summerside this year.

Meanwhile,Crokensays he's pleased that Silversea Cruises has confirmed one of its ships, the Silver Whisper, will make a stop in Summersidein 2016.

This one is going to have about 400 passengers and 275 crew or something like that, he said.

Croken says the port can handle ships of any size.

The issue with cruise ships is that they can't wait for tide change, they need to sail on their schedule. So that then has us looking at cruise ships that have about a six and half metre draft. And that puts us up to the size of a cruise ship of about 2,000 passengers, he said.