“European port facilities are amongst the best in the world,” Nigel Lingard, marketing director Fred Olsen Cruise Lines (pictured), told the Cruise Europe conference participants in May.
Among his remarks on what makes Europe ‘hot’, he pointed out that there are 500 UNESCO world heritage sites in Europe, that “the infrastructure works” and that “there are plenty of places for us to explore even on our own doorstep”.
Looking to 2015, he said that the cost of ships homeporting within an Emissions Control Area would be high: “It is going to be difficult for standard to premium product smaller ships [to operate].” Adding: “At some point smaller lines will have to look at new ships replacing existing tonnage as they will have to be cost effective.”
He also cautioned that the industry “should continue to work together to grow rather than becoming too competitive as in the airline industry”.
Kay-Uwe Maross, senior manager port operations AIDA Cruises, highlighted a couple of opportunities for ports to attract cruiselines, saying: “Bunkering is often difficult” and: “Offering technical service is also a good chance.”
The introduction of a berth reservation system and a similar tariff structure in all the ports “would be great”. Maross said: “We will avoid ports in the future that do first-come first-served on the day rather than long-term reservations.” Capt Luigi Pastena, port captain marine operations department MSC Cruises, agreed saying: “We want to know about berthing [practices] in advance”.
Jens Skrede, managing director CE, pointed out that Olden has already implemented a berth reservation system.
