Friday, February 28, 2025 - 17:59 by ce-press
Atlantic Europe port and associate members, together with Cruise Europe (CE) chair Simone Maraschi and managing director Jens Skrede, came together at Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (and also online) on February 12 to discuss topics ranging from performance figures for 2023 to 2024 to a booking policy to onshore power supply (OPS) and Entry and Exit System (EES).
Committee chair Helena Fernandes (director, commercial, marketing and communications at the Port of Leixoes) opened proceedings which began with Amsterdam’s city council decision to limit ocean cruises to 100 calls a year as of 2026 and river cruises to 1,150 a year as of 2028.
Dick de Graaf, managing director PTA, and others voiced concerns about Extinction Rebellion and similar protesters that are becoming intimidating towards cruise passengers. Maraschi offered CE assistance in helping with the political institutions and the impact of cruises in the cities.
Performance figures showed some notable increases in calls for 2024 on 2023, such as Lisbon, Zeebrugge, A Coruna, Leixoes, Honfleur and IJmuiden. For passenger numbers Hamburg, Rotterdam, Le Havre and Cherbourg are examples of those with a significant increase in passenger numbers.
Member feedback highlighted a significant increase in winter cruising in the region in the last few years.
The results of a member port booking policy survey were presented by Piet Vandenkerkhove, manager, Port of Antwerp-Bruges. Based on 12 out of 28 ports showed that a variety of procedures are presently in place with only four ports having a booking policy in place but a number showed interest in finding out more. A variety of cancellation policies/penalties are in place to discourage cruiselines from making double or triple bookings with different ports.
Most approve/refuse the berth request within 24 to 48 hours of the call and have a booking window open up to five years. When it comes to clashes between berth applications, 83 percent contact the customer/shipping agent to look for an alternative date.
Cruise Lines International Association’s vp ports & destinations, Nikos Mertzanidis, said that rules for managing calls adopted by ports should be clear, transparent and publicly available in English. To the extent possible, neighbouring ports should have visibility of published calls and that Iceland has the DOKK system and a public calendar where confirmed calls in all ports are visible: for both ports and local communities to better organise cruise days. Monic van der Heyden, commercial director at Cruise Port Amsterdam, mentioned the CruiseDock booking policy for river cruises in Amsterdam that could be presented to members.
A summary of the most recent ESPO cruise & ferry meeting was given which covered topics such as the implementation of the new 90 percent emission reduction target of 2040, the EU Sustainable Tourism Strategy, future EU budget and funding and an update on the EES, where a new date has been set for November 25.
When it comes to OPS, the results of an OPS economic survey are to be presented to members in an upcoming webinar. Those attending the AE regional meeting were taken on a tour of the OPS installation in Amsterdam, where they saw the conversion station and the cable management system, which will enter into operation during this year.
An update from the marketing committee and a presentation of the main events that CE will be attending this year took place. An exciting development is that of CE inaugurating its port exchange educational programme in Belfast this August.
Presentations were made by associate members: Alexander Napp from PWL Port Services and Gert Dewulf from De Buck Travel.
Finally Mertzanidis presented a comparison between cruise regions which pointed to overall growth and a promising outlook for the future. Globally 35.7 million passengers are forecast for 2024, a 12.6 percent increase on 2023. There are 50 ships on the order book to 2028, representing an €37.6 billion spend in European shipyards.
