Tuesday, November 8, 2016 - 09:12 by ce-press
In October a targeted group of participants representing cruiselines, Cruise Lines International Association, and major ports and destinations such as Cruise Europe (CE), attended the first Regional Dialogue for the Baltic which was organised by the EU Commission.
The one-day Baltic workshop on cruise tourism held in Copenhagen followed the launch in Brussels in March 2015 of the first Pan-European cruise dialogue. Both were held in the framework of action 3 of the European Strategy for more Growth and Jobs in Coastal and Maritime Tourism.
Jens Skrede, managing director CE, delivered one of the opening statements in which he focused on port reception facilities (PRF) and pointed out that there are now more than 10 CE members which offer such facilities in the Baltic region. Attending were CE members: Helsinki, Tallinn, Visby, Copenhagen & Malmo, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Aalborg.
The Baltic will now continue its approach to foster solutions for cruise tourism at regional level and will bring stakeholders closer together in a common effort for a more sustainable and competitive sector in the Baltic.
The Baltic Sea generates E1.4bn in direct revenues and the cruise industry generates about 12,000 jobs in the region.
The workshop agenda featured three roundtable discussions on:
*promotion of cruise tourism in the Baltic, how to guarantee an integrated cruise tourism offer in destinations, tools and tricks for destination promotion
*sustainable destination management, integration of ports with port cities, cruise tourism impact on local communities
*promotion of the environmental sustainability of cruise tourism in the Baltic by best practice sharing
Conclusions reached included: confirming the need to promote integrated solutions based on a comprehensive dialogue and collaboration between all major participants - the cruise operators ports, destinations and local stakeholders; and at all times underlining the fundamental business value aspect of a clean coastal and maritime environment.
