A RECORD number of cruise ships will dock in Rosyth this year with the first stopping off at the West Fife port next week.

There will be a total of 40 luxury liners coming into dock between now and October and businesses are being warned to prepare for a major increase in visitor numbers with 10,000 passengers expected.

The first vessel, The Astoria, will arrive on Tuesday and will signal the start of the cruise ship season.

This year will be the first time Fred Olsen's Balmoral has come to Rosyth and the 1,300 capacity liner will stop off in West Fife on a total of nine occasions in 2018.

Cruise Forth project manager Peter Wilson said the number of ships has doubled since their organisation started in 2011 to promote local attractions to cruise ship visitors.

"The first one is coming in on Tuesday and then there's a lull for a couple of weeks until May and they will then be able to coming regularly until October," he said. "The interest in cruise journeys is growing in the whole world and Scotland and the River Forth is seeing its share of that.

"When we started the cruise project in 2011, we dealt with about 20 ships and now that has doubled and the number of passengers has increased. Interest has grown and people have discovered that Dunfermline is a great place for half day visits."

With bigger ships than ever before due to come in this year, Peter said they have been working hard to ensure that local businesses will be prepared for the influx of extra visitors.

"We had a workshop through Dunfermline Delivers a month or so ago so businesses are thinking about what they may do with cruise ships and the passengers," he said. "They are starting to plan in detail for that. An example of that would be at the Birthplace Museum where they are going to have their loom going on, among others, days when the cruise ships are coming in.

"We have a bus running into Dunfermline next week and have been preparing people for that. Last year, some of the shops put on their own buses up to Dunfermline which, of course, increase the amount of visitors.

"The Balmoral comes with 1300 passengers and some will be looking for overnight accommodation for the night before or the night after so we have been raising awareness of local hotels so hopefully local hoteliers will benefit too."

Dunfermline Delivers' BID manager, Lisa Edwards, welcomed the expected increase in visitors to the area.

She added: “Dunfermline Delivers are very proud to be partners with Cruise Forth and continue to promote Dunfermline as a visitors destination to all arriving passengers with the support of all our businesses”