Cruise industry keeps growing – are we ready in Baltic Sea area?

Meanwhile Baltic Sea nations are concerned the pollution situation of the sea, algae problem and growing traffic of cruise and cargo vessels, there is knowledge already that for example luxury cruise market is expected to grow by 139 % (Cruise Industry News). Only in luxury cruise market there is going to be more vessels operating in different oceans. At the moment there are 45 ships, but it is going to be 84 by 2027. Capacity increase would be then over 139 % of the current situation. Baltic Sea is covering third biggest market share in global cruise production after Mediterranean and Caribbean cruises. Only thinking this, how Baltic Sea harbours are ready to pamper all those cruise customers?  Only Viking Ocean will cover over 35 % market share of luxury cruises, which mean almost half a million guests. “Other brands with planned growth include Silversea, with a newbuilding program counting five vessels; as well as Crystal, which has committed to a number of expedition newbuilds as well as new larger ocean-going ships. In addition are European operators Ponant and Hapag-Lloyd, as well as Regent, which will take delivery of the 750-guest Splendor in 2020”, says Cruise Industry News.

This creates challenges and opportunities in several sectors in tourism field:

1. Guide services development, which has been one of my favourite topic for long time. I have estimated that current tour guide services and what is called tour guide is not enough when we are talking about luxury market. It is not enough that technically tour guides can show the destination. Better social skills and wider perspective of customer service is needed. Our studies few years back about luxury market in Asia, Europe and North America gave interesting results that more “butler” kind of customer services are needed. Customers are getting more and more fragmented and services are more tailor-made. 1,5 hour city sightseeing which has been done for ages similar way, is not going to be enough – not anymore.

2. Because more small vessels are going to be build, this gives for smaller harbours and destinations better opportunities to gain also new cruise customers. Cruise companies are looking for new harbours and destinations constantly. Infrastructure of these harbours should be designed also maintaining good customer service and also to be more welcoming. Harbours are little bit challenged and not always considered architectural beauties. Still ​​​​ship size will grow from an average of 427 guests in 2018 to 498 guests by 2027. multiple shipyard slots remain in play after 2021, and more luxury and small ship newbuild orders are expected.

3. Harbours should have modern infrastructure to handle also the waste what these cruise vessels are bringing – or hopefully are bringing to be processed by the waste professionals. Threat is that some of these cruise vessels leave the waste in the sea. It is good to remember that Baltic Sea is the most polluted sea at the moment! Especially for Nordic countries, which are having fame to be so sustainable in many sectors, gives this a huge stain on their country brands. Stockholm and Helsinki harbours according my knowledge provide waste management free of charge. I encourage all the other harbours doing the same. I encourage to control more cruise vessels septic tanks and sharing information between different harbours which are on the cruise lines itineraries. Heavy sanctions for all those companies which are misbehaving.

4. Overtourism is one challenge what many current cities are facing when several cruise ships are coming at the same time. Caravans of buses are following each other creating traffic jams, lines to see the sight, lack of enough public toilets etc. Should we start to control the volumes more? Or giving different time slots for vessels to come to the harbour? Giving incentives to prolong their length of stay? At the moment some of the harbours are having the status to be so called turn-around harbours. This provides customers to stay overnight at the destination and the cruises starts or ends to the harbour. Also I am concerned the prices what these cruise customers have to pay to see simple city sightseeing in many destinations. Comparing to some observations, sometimes cruise customers are paying 20 – 30 % more of the tour than other visitors from the same tour. When Baltic Sea is having so important role in global cruise business, why in cooperation with different countries and especially those harbour cities, we could tighten the rules and control more this business to be more sustainable. Cruise companies are considered sometimes to be “lazy” to have new tours for their sales. Should this be avoided with contracts like “if your vessels are coming to our harbour, there should be at least 5 different tours for sale of which 1 – 2 are new ones for the year 2019”. Only a suggestion.