Last year, PTA had 121 calls and 281,907 passengers; in 2017 the number is projected to rise to 144 ships and 340,000 passengers and 170 cruise ships are already booked for 2018.
In addition, over 1,790 river ships call annually at the PTA terminal on the banks of the river IJ.
Besides being a passenger terminal, PTA is also an events venue. Large cruise ships up to 340mtr are able to moor due to the wide turning radius that has been dredged to a depth of 10mtr.
In an exclusive interview with Seatrade Cruise News, Amsterdam’s deputy mayor and alderman to the city, Kajsa Ollongren, shared the re-location discussion is due to several reasons.
‘Firstly, we want to relieve the pressure on the city center. Amsterdam has a relatively small and old city centre with a lot of visitors coming in every day. If we want tourism to be sustainable in the years to come, we need to organize it in a different way,’ remarked Ollongren, responsible for economic affairs, the seaport (Port of Amsterdam), the airport (Schiphol), monuments, arts and culture.
‘That means restriction on new hotels, on cars and coaches and also on cruise ships,’ she underscores.
Ollongren has proposed moving the terminal west in order for the city center to become, ‘a destination for cruise passengers, not the destination.’
‘Secondly, more and more cruise ships are visiting Amsterdam and from 2019 the sea lock at Ijmuiden can handle larger ships, so cruise activity in this part of the Netherlands will grow even more,’ she remarked.
‘To facilitate this growth, the city will need more cruise handling capacity.’
René Kouwenberg, director of PTA told SCN, ‘We support the search for additional capacity and realize that this has to be at an alternative location with state-of-the-art facilities, ready for an Oasis-class ship.’
Kouwenberg continued, ‘Amsterdam still will be the main attraction for passengers and we have to find green and sustainable means of transport into town as they will no longer be able to walk into the city centre.
The city is currently investigating ways it can improve connectivity of the districts on both sides of the river IJ.
‘The city of Amsterdam is growing at an impressive pace and needs better connections with the north, especially from the center and vice versa. Small ferries that carry pedestrians and cyclists are becoming more and more crowded,’ the deputy mayor said.
The site for the new terminal has not yet been finalized, Ollongren said but stressed the Port of Amsterdam, owner of PTA and the City of Amsterdam are leading the discussions. ‘Cruise lines will be consulted,’ she added.
Five to ten years seems a realistic timescale for completion and currently no decisions have been made about any funding.
Maintaining the handling of smaller cruise ships and the river cruise vessels at the current location in the heart of the city, ‘is an option that will be part of the decision making process,’ Ollongren said.
‘It is very important that we keep the present location for smaller and luxury cruise ships,’ Kouwenberg added.
The deputy mayor told SCN she supports, ‘a strong cruise sector in the greater metropolitan area of Amsterdam as it creates jobs and passengers contribute to the economy of Amsterdam and surrounding places of interest.’
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