Though fiercely competitive, German ports are all reaping the rewards of both the country’s growing source market and the popularity of North Europe as a destination, remarked Robert Howe, md of Bremenports GmbH.
More than 90% of Bremerhaven’s cruise business is turnarounds and this year 86 ship calls will bring 150,000 passengers while next year 119 calls are predicted and 230,000 passengers with Costa, TUI and Phoenix conducting either full or partial homeporting operations.
Having doubled its car parking space by 800 this year, the port is planning a multi-storey car park to cater for the increasing drive-to business, and a new east-west motorway under development will see the journey time to Hamburg reduce to one hour.
The port city of Bremerhaven, and nearby UNESCO-listed Bremen, offer plentiful opportunities for tours.
Over 2m Germans cruised last year, making it the number one European source market and second on a global scale. Record sales are expected again in 2017 and with German shipyards being at the forefront of innovative power technologies—Meyer Werft is delivering the first LNG-powered cruise ship to AIDA in November 2018—‘the future of Germany’s cruise sector is in a good place’, said Uwe Beckmeyer, parliamentary state secretary, federal ministry for economic affairs and energy at the opening of the conference.
Cruise Europe chairman Michael McCarthy outlined the health of the port network which boasts 127 members including associates and spoke of excercising partnerships and sustainability.
He reported the ongoing work that Cruise Europe is doing with Cruise Lines International Association to develop and strengthen the cruise industry in North Europe and the strides that the cruise lines are making in innovation, safety and environmental performance on the 70-plus cruise ships that are currently on order.
However, McCarthy highlighted the hundreds of ships sailing now and in the future that will not sport the very latest technologies and as a port facing the arrival of a ship which needs to offload waste he asked the lines for their help in identifying what the waste is and what it is made up of to ensure sound handling on shore.
On the question of sustainability, McCarthy said often cruise ships do not win the hearts and minds of the community which they are visiting, ‘but we live there and we need to be better informed by the lines of your environmental stewardship so we can help you in telling a good story to the locals and mitigate any possible negativity.’
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