Fred Olsen Cruise Line's Black Watch will close the season on December 23 as the 186th scheduled call of 2017, making it the second busiest year ever. In 2013, Stavanger welcomed 197 cruise calls, and last year 167.
Depending on occupancy on board, guest numbers this year may come close to the 345,000 visitors recorded in 2013, informs Anders Bang-Andersen, director of cruise development Stavanger.
All major cuise lines and most of the smaller ones, operating in Nordic waters, now visit Stavanger. 64 different ships from more than 30 cruise lines will also bring more than 110.000 crew members to the Norwegian port.
May, June, July and August will be the busiest months with more than 150 calls in total. The biggest cruise line customers in Stavanger in 2017 are AIDA Cruises with 26 calls (21 in 2016), P&O Cruises with 25 (24) and Viking Ocean Cruises with 23 (14).
The most frequent ships to call Stavanger will be MSC Fantasia and Pullmantur's Monarch with ten calls each, followed by AIDAsol, Costa Magica, Viking Star and Viking Sea with eight apiece.
Bang-Andersen told Seatrade Cruise News, currently the same number of calls are booked for 2018, 'making that a prosperous year too'.
Stavanger has not had serious challenges with people congestion. 'However, some local stakeholders increasingly voice concern about the environmental footprint of the cruise sector,' he added.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Cruise News to your Google News feed.
