Liverpool City Council has identified the former Princes Jetty at Princes Parade, close to the landing stage, as its preferred location and a potentially suitable site.
Cunard – which describes the city as its spiritual home – said the development could lead to the reintroduction of its transatlantic crossings from Liverpool, which last took place regularly in 1968.
It follows a doubling in the number of vessels visiting Liverpool since it became a turnaround facility in 2012 – up from 31 to 61. Passenger numbers are up from 38,656 four years ago to an expected 86,365 this year.
The council is to appoint advisors to carry out an in-depth study into the design and cost of constructing a terminal capable of handling 3,600 embarking and disembarking passengers with baggage – twice as many as the existing facility. The site would include passport control, passenger lounge, café, toilets, taxi rank, vehicle pick up point, coach layover area and a car park.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: 'The temporary facility has been a tremendous success and served us well, but a city of Liverpool’s standing and ambition needs a permanent building if we are to continue the growth we’ve seen in recent years. It’s always been my ambition to develop an iconic terminal which makes Liverpool a world-class destination for cruise ships.'
He added, 'there is still lots of work to do before we can give any scheme the green light, but the fact that we have identified a potential site which we are seriously looking at shows the importance we attach to the cruise market.'
Cruise is estimated to have generated £7m for the city’s visitor economy last year, up from £1.3m when it was a port of call destination.
Cunard director Angus Struthers welcomed today’s news. He said: 'Liverpool’s ambitions to develop its cruise business have been clear for some time. We’re therefore delighted that today’s announcement takes the development of a new cruise terminal into its next phase.
'Liverpool will forever be Cunard’s spiritual home, and, as the world witnessed with the Three Queens spectacular last May, the city’s pride in this association, and the level of interest in Cunard across the whole North West of England, remains strong.'
Though Southampton will remain Cunard’s homeport, 'we look forward to working with Liverpool to see how we can develop a great experience for our guests. In particular, we will be looking at how we might be able to incorporate Liverpool into Queen Mary 2’s transatlantic crossings.'
Liverpool scooped Destination of the Year at the Seatrade Cruise Awards in September 2015.
