Klaipeda has a good possibility to become a popular cruise port

News from the conference Seatrade Europe in Hamburg, 29^th – 31^st October 2003, themes: cruises, ferries, river cruises.

 

The speakers were mainly the representatives of the cruise shipping business, the greatest European and USA cruise lines, namely, Royal Carribean, Festival Cruises, Hapag Lloyd Kreuzfahrten, P&O Princess Cruises, Delphin Seereisen, Holland America Line, Saga Shipping, Costa Crocierre, Seetours and others. These are the leaders of this industry and the specialists of this sphere, who described the present of the cruise business, its problems and future prospects in a very competent way. There were over all 46 cruise experts.

 

Eventually there were listeners from cruise ports, shipping agencies, tourism companies and other subjects, providing services to cruise routes and ships, in total over 300.

 

The main sponsors of the conference – Hamburg cruise centre and Fidel cruises.

 

Themes discussed in the conference session: condition of cruise industry in Europe, state of European ferry lines, selection strategies of new cruise ports, mainly used European cruise lines, European river cruise industry, information technologies in cruise business, direction Europe – brand establishment, demand of new cruise ships, demand of renewal of old ships and other.

 

Cruise industry in the world preserves stable growth rate. Cruise operators are looking forward to the future in a very calm way, the subject of concern is only that there is a possibility that they could not manage to get ready to increasing cruise business demand, i.e. renew the fleet, purchase new ships, make a mistake in selecting cruise ports and the like. Only in 2002 European cruise industry has increased up to 9%, the total being 11,2 mln. tourists, and this is a great number. It is forecasted that up to 2010 there will be 2 billion Euros invested into cruise fleet in the world.

 

Opinion polls show that cruises are the most preferable and desirable kind of holidays and entertainment, that is the reason why cruise business forecasts constant yearly growth of the number of cruise tourists. Cruise tourism in Germany increased 97,2 % from 1995 to 2002, moreover up to 2010 the prognosis is 5 mln. tourists. In 2003 the most active cruise tourists in Europe were British people – 822 000 persons, Germans – 428 000, Italians – 315 000, Frenchmen – 195 000, etc.

 

Growth of the cruise industry conditions the demand of selecting new cruise ports for cruise operators. Main criteria in selecting new ports are: port security, development of infrastructure and quality of tourism services, as well as realistic price of excursions and ports, partnership principle. Main factors in selecting new ports are innovation and originality, i.e. the ports that are selected offer unusual and unconventional excursions that cannot be encountered in old Europe and so forth.

Cruise experts in the conference emphasised the significance of the growth of the ports in the Baltic region. Economic and political stability is especially valued in the Baltic States as well as the fact that these countries are little known to the world, moreover “undiscovered” and not visited.