UP TO 2,000 gay men are expected to visit Guernsey in one day. What is claimed to be UK’s first gay cruise will anchor off St Peter Port next May.

Passengers aboard the 758ft Norwegian Dream cruise liner will have an opportunity to sightsee in St Peter Port.

‘It’s not a full day stop. We’ll get into Guernsey at about 7am and leave mid-afternoon,’ said port-side cruise director Tom Moore of all-gay operator The Big Cruise.

Under the headline Seamen Required for Cruising Channel, specialist website pinknews.co.uk yesterday described the luxury liner as ‘one of the campest ships in the fleet’.

Mr Moore said the operator’s decision to stop off Guernsey had been an easy one.

‘Guernsey is the most interesting Channel Island. I’ve been to Jersey quite a few times and if I had to say to a ship full of men to go and entertain themselves in St Helier, then they would struggle to find anything to do.

‘That’s not a problem in Guernsey. St Peter Port is picturesque and has a Mediterranean feel to it. St Helier looks like any other place in the UK. It’s no longer unique.’

A spokesman for the Commerce and Employment Department, which looks after tourism, said: ‘This is not an issue for the department. We welcome all visitors.’

Mr Moore said he was looking forward to the stop in St Peter Port to reshape some perceptions.

‘I guess Guernsey could sometimes be described as a bit old-fashioned, so we are keen to dispel a few of our stereotypes,’ he said.

‘I think your business people will be surprised just how normal and not-weird we are.

‘There are a lot of preconceptions that we will arrive in pink feathery clothes and be skipping along.’

Harbour master Captain Peter Gill said he could not confirm the Norwegian Dream’s arrival because he had not yet seen the cruise ship list for next May.

‘For us, it’s just another ship arriving. We will treat it the same, whether it wants to dock or it wants its passengers to come ashore.’

The Big Cruise is the first gay cruise line to run out of the UK, following on from the commercial success of United States-based operators. According to Mr Moore, it was about cutting out the travel for US cruises.

But it is such a new operator that Island International Travel managing director Mike Quittenden had not heard of them.

‘Cruises are very much a changing environment, with different products coming on to the market all the time, but at the moment we haven’t heard of them.’

That has not put off Mr Moore, who expects to be back in Guernsey next year on the cruise.

‘We have only recently started advertising it and sales are going really well.

‘We’ve nearly sold out of the most expensive high-class suites and we are expecting it to be an annual thing after this year.

‘People can expect to see us during the next few May bank holidays, spending our money in Guernsey.’