Wednesday, October 29, 2014 - 09:59 by ce-press
From April to October 73 cruiseships visited Gothenburg carrying 110,000 visitors and generating about SEK60m (E6.5m) in tourist revenue for the city.
Jill Soderwall, head of cruise operations Port of Gothenburg, said: "This is an all-time high. Never before have we had so many calls. The peak was in May when we had seven calls and 12,500 guests in just two days. Everyone at the port was working flat out.”
Together with Goteborg & Co, the port has invested heavily in marketing itself to cruise lines and this initiative has produced dividends with calls increasing from nine in 2000 to 73 calls this year.
The average passenger to the Swedish city spends around SEK600 on shopping, eating and sightseeing. Sara Sundaeus, cruise manager Goteborg & Co, said: "The visitors enjoy the cosy atmosphere of the city, the large number of cafes and restaurants and the fact that everything is within walking distance.”
The majority of passsengers who visit are from Germany, the UK and the USA and most are visiting for the first time.
Next year fewer calls are expected although the number of visitors will be almost the same. Sodervall explained: "We can see a general fall in the number of calls by cruise ships throughout the whole region next year. We regard the fact that we have succeeded in attracting as many as 61 ships as clear evidence that we have done a good job in welcoming our guests to the city.”
The first and final call of the year was from AIDAcara which, together with sisterships, made 27 calls during the year. The largest was Royal Princess.
Back in 2000 there were nine calls and just 3,400 passengers rising to 20 and 12,700 in 2005 and 41 and 51,700 in 2010.
