Seatrade Cruise News is part of the Informa Markets Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Cunard's Queen Elizabeth is Kiel's 2,500th cruise ship visitor

7c1289603625c22e793e4f751b3af87b_XL
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth berthed at Port of Kiel on Saturday
Kiel celebrated the arrival of its 2,500th cruise ship visitor: Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth on Saturday. The vessel followed MSC Musica, AIDAluna and AIDAvita into the port on its historic day.

The president of the City of Kiel, Hans-Werner Tovar paid tribute to the occasion during a reception at the Ostseekai Cruise Terminal. '2,500 visits are an enormous accomplishment and one achieved over many years of partnership and co-operation involving the port itself, shipping companies and service providers,' he said.

To commemorate the 2500th visit, an artist’s wooden sculpture of a pile mooring was unveiled at the terminal. Dr Dirk Claus, md Port of Kiel (Seehafen Kiel GmbH & Co. KG) said 'sea tourism has grown faster than most other sectors and cruises are today one of our port’s most important businesses.'

Anja Tabarelli, sales and marketing director of Cunard in Germany, said 'Kiel is my home town and so I am personally very pleased that we are able to celebrate this anniversary with our Queen Elizabeth. When she called here for the first time in July 2012 as the youngest of the Cunard Queens her visit was celebrated by the people of Kiel into the early hours of the morning. You could say that there is already a very special relationship between the ship and the port, with the result that we are always happy to come back here. We will do that next year as well and we look forward to our call on June 21, 2017.'

The first cruise ship to visit Kiel, according to the ledgers of the Port Administration, was Reederei Hapag-Lloyd’s Europa (IV) which berthed at the Bollhörnkai on June 23, 1974. A total of four cruise ship visits were recorded in that first season – two by Sagafjord and two by Europa (IV).

During the 1980s and the 1990s, regular callers on the Kiel Fiord were well-known German ships like Berlin, Europa (V), Astor and also Arkona. Inside just ten years between 1984 and 1994 the number of visits rose from 14 to 66.

At the end of the 1990s Festival Cruises deployed a ship in Kiel  for a season, marking a game changer for the Baltic port. From 1998 Flamenco and later Mistral undertook 19 Baltic and Nordic cruises a year.

Using its experience of handling ferries, Kiel was able to quickly develop into a leading departure and transit port for cruise ships. In 2002, Costa Cruises based Costa Marina in Kiel, followed by AIDA Cruises with AIDAblu (2004) and by MSC Cruises with MSC Lirica (2006). In 2007, Kiel berthed 100 cruise ships in a single season for the first time.

Up to that time cruise ships were handled along with ferries at the ferry terminals but as cruise ships started to grow in size Kiel identified the need for dedicated cruise facilities and the new Ostseekai Terminal was built in 2006 in readiness for the next generation of cruise ships and opened on April 24, 2007 with the maiden call of AIDAdiva.

Located in the centre of the city it can handle ships which are 350mtr long and carrying 4,000 passengers. The biggest cruise ship to call so far has been 143,000gt Regal Princess, which berthed last year.

Highlights at the Ostseekai Terminal have included the naming of AIDAsol in 2011 and Mein Schiff 4 last year. The company which has recorded the most visits to Kiel is MSC Cruises with 327, followed by AIDA, Hapag-Lloyd and Costa.

A total 4.5m cruise ship passengers have to date travelled to and from Kiel.

Due to investment in Berth 1 in Ostuferhafen in 2014, Kiel can handle three big and several smaller cruise ships at the same time. Claus said, 'we are in a very good position with our terminal facilities. The developments of the past year and an almost 30% increase in passengers underscore this.'