Gdynia rides the wave
While the cruise industry is averaging an annual growth rate of six percent worldwide, the market in Baltic ports has grown by an average of 15 percent annually over the last five years. This makes the Baltic Sea region the second-most popular cruise destination in the world, right after the Caribbean Islands. By the same token, the number of passengers coming on cruise ships to the Polish Port of Gdynia has more than tripled over the last ten years.
Last year Port of Gdańsk hosted 33 cruise ships. Larger cruise liners are still unable to enter the harbor in Gdańsk, or the harbors in Szczecin and winoujcie. Thus, out of Poland's four big harbors, only Gdynia can host the world's biggest ships, such as the Queen Mary 2 or the Star Princess. Some 94 cruise ships visited Port of Gdynia last year, bringing 88,723 passengers, which constitutes over a 300-percent increase in comparison with 1995, when the number of passengers equaled just 26,991.
"A cruise usually lasts 10 to 14 days, while the ship stays for a day in each of the Baltic harbors, where passengers disembark and go on day-trips," says Jan Lewko, Port of Gdynia's marketing director. "In Port of Gdynia the excursion includes trips to Gdańsk, the castle in Malbork, Hel Peninsula and sometimes Kaszuby," explains Lewko. Most passengers are American, some are German or British. There are almost no Poles among them.
Cruise liners bring substantial revenues to Port of Gdynia as well as to the entire region. "Star Princess takes 2,600 passengers. How many coaches does it take for all these people to go on a trip? Thirty? Fifty?" asks Lewko. Tour operators make profits organizing day trips for the cruise liners' passengers, museums charge for entrance tickets, tourists buy souvenirs and visit local shops and cafes. "The benefits are huge," stresses Lewko. This year, Star Princess alone will visit Port of Gdynia 13 times.
Lewko is very optimistic about the growth of passenger numbers. "Port of Gdynia is participating in the EU project Cruise Baltic, which aims to promote the Baltic region in the cruise tourism market and increase the number of passengers by 20 percent in three years," he says. The project was launched in September 2004. All 17 participating destinations and ports are implementing common standards for service and port facilities. "We are working on making the infrastructure for the ships more comfortable as well as on improving the facilities for passengers," says Lewko.
However, with only just under 90,000 passengers visiting Port of Gdynia last year, there is still much to be done to attract more tourists. With approximately 360,000, 300,000 and 290,000 passengers last year, the most popular Baltic cruise destinations were Copenhagen, St. Petersburg and Tallinn respectively.
