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Norwegian Cruise Line is upbeat about the outlook for its business on the British market, which has grown by 25% from last year, senior company executives said.

Speaking on board the new Norwegian Breakaway in Southampton, the company's head of marketing Andy Stuart said the UK is the second most important market for Norwegian after the U.S.

A decision to reposition Norwegian Star to Copenhagen for a series of Baltic cruises instead of Dover has allowed the company to reduce the itinerary to nine nights from 12. The fly cruise programme has turned to attract brisk business particularly from the north of the country.

Central Mediterranean itinerary from Venice has proven to sell very well too on the British market.

Stuart said the company had chosen fly cruises as its path to grow its business in the UK and in light of response from the market this has emerged as the right decision.

The company has two ships in Europe this summer and two year round. Political unrest in the eastern Mediterranean region made it axe itineraries with calls there, but it reintroduced calls at Moroccan ports on the basis of agent feedback.

Francis Riley, Vice President International, said Norwegian regards its agents as core business partners that are in the DNA of everything the company does. The aim is that Norwegian should be easy to do business with for agents and it should be their cruise line of choice. As part of this, Norwegian has recently introduced a new booking engine for agents.