BRITAIN'S cruising market is continuing to grow rapidly - with Southampton-based op-eration Ocean Village today announcing the addition of a second ship.

Ocean Village is a part of the stable of companies owned by the Miami-based Carnival Corporation that also includes Cunard, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Swan Hellenic, which all have their UK bases in Southampton.

Carnival Corporation employs about 1,000 staff locally and is one of the biggest employers in the city, the UK's premier port for cruise ships.

Specialising in casual cruising and aimed at younger passengers, Ocean Village will more than double in size next year when the new ship, at present named Regal Princess and currently part of the Princess Cruises fleet in America, joins the company.

Like the first Ocean Village vessel, the second ship will offer informal fly-cruise holidays in the Mediterranean.

Due to come into service in November 2006, the newer, larger ship will accommodate up to 1,690 passengers and, although similar in layout to the company's first ship, also named Ocean Village and formerly the Southampton-based P&O Cruises vessel Arcadia, she will have three times as many cabins with private balconies.

Peter Shanks, managing director of Ocean Village, said: "We have been shaking up the traditional cruise market since launching our first ship less than two years ago.

"Ocean Village has already taken more than 150,000 bookings, nearly 60 per cent of them from first-time cruisers.''