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N. Europe buoyant but cruise lines and ports must work together to fend off naysayers

PHOTO: Mary Bond
RCCL's Chris Allan (left) and Miguel Reyna helping steer the company's deployment, itinerary planning and port development
A record 150 or so North European ports, destinations and service providers attending the 2018 Cruise Europe conference in St Petersburg, Russia Wednesday heard of the growth mode the region is currently experiencing and with 99 newbuilds delivering through to 2027, the future also looks bright.

However Cruise Europe chair Michael McCarthy threw in a reality check speaking of challenges posed to his members from bigger ships carrying greater numbers of guests and the issue of over-tourism in many of North Europe’s marquee cruise destinations.

‘Cruise is paying the price for visibility,’ he said citing Amsterdam as an example, where politicians have honed in on cruise ships as the cause of some of the cities over-crowding issues when 18m+ people travel into the city annually, compared to 120,000 transit cruise passengers a year.

‘The ports and cruise lines have done good collaborative work on shorex developments but we could do better on tackling the environmental lobby,’ noted McCarthy.

He called for the cruise lines, ‘to supply data on all the environmental initiatives found on the cruise ships visiting our region so we can speak to the environmental agencies and the local media and help spread the word that the cruise industry is not the environmental pariah that many who are not in the know think we are.’

Talking from a cruise line perspective, Chris Allan vp deployment & itinerary planning RCCL, highlighted congestion in ports/shoreside and waste water regulations as challenges facing operators in the region but spoke of great opportunities for North Europe, ‘to get more business due to the continued growth in multi-generational travel.’

Highlighting the 12 ships currently on order for Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises, and the wider orderbook, Allen stressed how important ports and destinations are to the expanding industry. ‘It is critically important that destinations are rich in their offering so that guests want to keep coming back.’

Looking at port infrastructure, Lotfi Trabelsi, RCCL’s manager port ops & guest port services for the region said most of the key North European ports do have infrastructure able to accommodate the largest ships currently scheduled to visit the region but he added, ‘with the on-going growth of the market we do rely on our port partners developing infrastructure to deliver the best possible guest experience when in port and ashore.’

Chris Coates, Cruise & Maritime Voyages noted with around 50 new ships coming on stream in the next three years, the North and West European market is expected to experience significant growth of +2.5m passengers by 2020.

‘A collaborative approach with municipalities, tourism authorities and DMC’s is required to help manage capacity and improve guest experience,’ said Coates, who called for a proactive focus on events and themes to help planners differentiate itineraries.

Virgin Voyages’ vp itinerary & destination development, Craig Milan said ‘it’s a great time to be a port looking for cruise activity with 40% growth in global capacity predicted in the next decade.’

Ports and destinations need to be persistent

Ever the politician, Milan would not be drawn if the start-up was looking at deploying its 2nd or 3rd new builds coming in 2021 and 2022 into Europe (PortMiami has been announced as the home port of its first ship arriving in 2020), however he advised delegates, ‘to be persistent and make sure you engage with the right people if you want to enter or grow your cruise business.’

Persistence was a word also used by Miguel Reyna, director commercial development RCCL referring to port development, his special focus. ‘Port development takes persistence, time and planning.’

He highlighted the work Royal Caribbean is doing at its new PortMiami Terminal A opening later this year, ‘where we are focusing on creating an even better passenger experience.’

The berth at Terminal A, which is built to handle an Oasis-class vessel in Miami for the first time, will actually be able to accommodate a ship 400mtr long: ‘it gives us flexibility for the future, whether we will need to use the full length I cannot say,’ he quipped.

Helping operators of small to medium-sized vessels differentiate their itineraries

Turning to small to medium-sized vessels and how Cruise Europe ports can help operators of these vessels differentiate their itineraries, Nicolai Skogland, senior port ops manager Viking Ocean Cruises claimed: ‘Northern Europe is Viking territory’ and said the line featured 44% of CE’s 120 members in its itineraries.

New for next year are six 13 day Northern Lights cruises between January-March 2019 starting in London and featuring Stavanger, Bodo, Narvik, Tromso, Alta and Bergen. ‘This is a first winter cruise product in Norway targeted primarily at North American passengers,’ he said.

Also in Viking’s 2019 programme is the possibility to cruise from Bergen to Budapest, ‘another first’, said Skogland, sailing from Bergen to Amsterdam by a Viking ocean ship and then down the Danube, Main and Rhine cruise to Budapest on a Viking river vessel.

Silversea Cruises will call in 120 ports in North Europe in 2019 with half of its expedition capacity sailing mainly in the Baltic next summer including at least one overnight stop in St Petersburg. Justin Poulsen, director strategic pricing & itinerary planning called on ports to ‘create special moments which are somewhat priceless as luxury is being redefined from having, to experiencing or learning, things.’

Looking at the shoreside experience, Crystal Morgan director deployment planning Princess Cruises challenged host port DMC’s, and others across North Europe, to think about creating an authentic experience even in the summer in a must visit attraction like The Hermitage. ‘Rather than just send the passengers in to view the rich art collection you might have a museum guide walk a group through highlighting their own favourite pieces and why.’

Mystic Cruises’ ops & product development exec James Cabello, outlined the arrival of the company’s first newbuild, World Explorer, which will touch water in July and be charted by Quark for Antarctica cruises from Dec. 2018 to March 2019 before repositioning to Lisbon for a few Med sailings and then up to North Europe for summer sailings which Nicko Tours will sell on the German market.

He told ports that, ‘we want to be experiencial rather than expedition with overnight options, and to be in port alone, where possible.’