Page 12 - CIN 2019 European Report

}EUROPEAN MARKET
COPENHAGEN
New Terminal
for 2020
CRUISE ship calls continue to increase on an annual basis in
Copenhagen as the Danish city has gone from 325 calls in 2017
to 346 in 2018, and expects 355 calls and 900,000 guests next
year, according to Arnt Moller Pedersen, COO cruise and ferries.
The 2018 season kicked off in late March with the Astoria,
and will go to the end of October when the AIDAmar calls on
Halloween. That is a full month longer than the 2017 season,
with 2018 featuring nine new ships.
There are also nine off-season Christmas and New Years
calls, an all time-high.
Among the highlights, the biggest ship to call was the Nor-
wegian Breakaway, while May 20 saw the port handle six ships,
24,000 cruise passengers and 8,000 crew in a single day, said
Pedersen.
Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth in Copenhagen
“We are building a new cruise terminal in Copenhagen with
capacity for 5,000 guests and with a quay length of 370 meters
and a water depth of 12 meters,” he said, noting it will be ready
by April 2020. “The terminal building will have two floors,
totaling 10,000 square meters and two gangway bridges.”
Overall more than 1.1 million cruise passengers are ex-
pected to visit Danish ports this year, with an economic impact
of 200 million euro, according to a statement.
In addition to Copenhagen’s strong numbers, Aarhus will
welcome 100,000 passengers for the first time; and business is
also expected to double for the port of Skagen.
And in Visby, a new cruise quay opened earlier this year and
was inaugurated by a call from the AIDAdiva in April. ¾
90 Cruise Industry News: 2019 European Regional Report
SKAGEN
New Facilities
Paying Off
THE Port of Skagen in Denmark is seeing a 100 percent increase
in cruise traffic this year.
“Forty-two cruise ships carrying up to 68,500 guests are
going to call at Skagen in 2018,” said Willy B. Hansen, CEO of
the port. “An increase of more than 100 percent compared to
2017, where 33,000 cruise guests onboard 31 ships visited Ska-
gen.”
The expansive harbor in Skagen
First time visitors this year include ships from both Viking
Ocean Cruises and Princess Cruises, added Anne Sofie Rønne
Jensen, cruise manager.
“We created new extra tours as the guest profiles are differ-
ent and the trends within tourism are changing,” Jensen said.
“We work closely together with our local cruise network, Cruise
Skagen Denmark, where the members count both politicians,
the port authority, the tourist organization, the trade organization
as well as retailers, restaurants, attractions and bus operators to
professionalize our product.”
Skagen likes to point out its good location – on the route
between the Baltic and Norwegian fjords.
“We are actually also very well located for the vessels com-
ing from or going to Southampton, Kiel and Amsterdam,”
Jensen added.
New cruise facilities were completed in 2015, including two
piers capable of handling big ships, which were built with input
from various cruise operators.
Skagen is ready and able to host more ships, as the second-
largest tourism destination in Denmark behind Copenhagen.
The city receives around 2 million visitors annually.
“We are already discussing 2022 with some cruise lines,”
Jensen continued. “We do not see any challenges as of now re-
garding the capacity growth and larger ships as we have not yet
reached our maximum capacity ship-size wise or regarding the
number of guests.”
The Viking Sky opens the 2019 season in Skagen on April
2, while the Saga Sapphire is currently scheduled as the last call
on September 29, on a 12-night cruise from Dover. ¾