Carnival Cruise Lines will boost its support of Bermuda next year with an almost 50 per cent increase, according to the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

While the cruise line is scheduled to make 20 visits this year, that number will rise to 29 in 2020.

A total of six Carnival ships — the Carnival Breeze, Carnival Magic, Carnival Pride, Carnival Radiance, Carnival Sunshine and Carnival Sunrise — are scheduled to dock on the island in 2019 and 2020.

Kevin Dallas, the BTA chief executive, said responsibility for cruise ship contracts lies with the Ministry of Tourism and Transport, but the increase in arrivals is a boost to the tourism industry.

He said: “We’re very glad to see the increased number of calls from Carnival Cruise Line, and its positive response to our request to deploy ships from southeast US ports, such as Charleston, South Carolina, and Florida.

“This allows a variety of visitors to experience our island.

“We’ve also successfully accomplished extending the traditional summer season, with at least five cruises slated for next spring and more than a dozen scheduled after Labour Day 2020.”

Fred Stein, Carnival’s vice-president of revenue planning and deployment, said: “Guest feedback on our Bermuda programme has been nothing short of sensational and we’re delighted to expand our offerings to provide even more guests an opportunity to experience all this tropical island paradise has to offer.”

Among the new cruises are a series of weeklong cruises from Baltimore, Maryland, on the Carnival Pride, which will include three days in Bermuda, and a weeklong cruise from Charleston.