Photo: Cruise Baltic
“The introduction of Disney is a great
quality stamp for the region – it means that
we have been successful in pursuing family-friendliness.”
Larsen goes on to add that the European market is simply too big to ignore
at the moment – for some cruise lines,
half of the sourcing consists of Europeans.
VALUE FOR MONEY
The Baltic Sea Region is not the most inexpensive corner of the world, but it remains a strong favourite of both the operators and the public. Larsen explains that
the Baltic delivers good value and the ports
and the way of doing business is well-organised in international comparison.
The Mediterranean Sea, on the other hand, features ports which need to upgrade their infrastructure in order to stay in
the game. Drawing from its reputation as
a year-round cruise destination, the Mediterranean will be a force to be reckoned
with in the future as well. For example
MSC has been investing in shoreside facilities in Italian ports such as Naples and
Civitavecchia.
Barcelona remains the destination to
beat in the south: passenger numbers for
2008 exceeded two million, marking an
18% increase.
TUI CRUISES DEBUTING
The European cruise market is deemed so
attractive that new alliances are forged to
explore the field. For instance, TUI Cruises
is a new joint venture of Royal Caribbean
Beautiful Stockholm has strong position as a turnaround destination.
Cruises Ltd and TUI AG.
Recently TUI Cruises arranged a com-
It is also noteworthy that when it
and architecture – and this diversity is now
petition seeking a name for its very first
comes to capacity, European cruise line
attracting new customer groups: “We are
new ship. More than 11,000 people sent
brands have strengthened their represen-
seeing more people from Southern Europe,
in over 30,000 ideas to the competition
tation at the top. There are three Europe-
as well as families. There are also young-
for finding a name for the ship.
an cruise operators (Costa, Aida and MSC)
er people among the cruise visitors now.”
The ship was finally christened Mein
Speaking of families, Larsen is es-
Schiff – which translates as My Ship – on
in the Top 5.
According to Larsen, the Baltic Sea is
pecially pleased to see Disney Cruise Line
the most diverse cruise region in the world.
make its debut on the Baltic waves next
There is history and culture, modern design
year.
May 15th. ■
8
seatec 2/2009
SAMI J. ANTEROINEN