This weekend sees the start of the international cruise ship season at the Ports of Stockholm with the arrival of the cruise ship Bolette at the Port of Nynäshamn. In total 126 cruise ships are booked for 2023, which is more than at any other Swedish port.
“Despite the tough world situation, the Ports of Stockholm have the greatest number of cruise ship bookings of all the Swedish ports. During a normal year cruise passengers spend more than SEK 600 million in the Stockholm region, which means a lot for the tourist industry,” says Johan Wallén, Marketing, and Sales Manager at Ports of Stockholm.
Interest in Stockholm as a cruise destination remains strong, but the number of cruise ship calls in the Northern Baltic Sea continues to be impacted by the war in Ukraine. In a normal year, there would be more than twice as many cruise ship calls at the Ports of Stockholm.
The cruise industry worldwide, apart from in the Northern Baltic Sea, has recovered following the tough pandemic years. For many years Ports of Stockholm has been a member of both Cruise Baltic and Cruise Europe. The current focus of both of these organizations is to work together with the ports in the Northern Baltic Sea – Stockholm, Helsinki, and Tallinn – to invest and plan for a return to normal levels. For Ports of Stockholm, this means around 300 cruise ship calls per season.
“In Stockholm, we have high environmental goals and we work systematically with the important sustainability issues in collaboration with our customers and with other ports. One such collaboration concerns the sustainable management of solid and liquid waste from the ships. This year we will also complete one of the onshore power connection facilities for cruise ships at our city central Stadsgården Quay. Onshore power facilities for cruise ships are not common in Europe, but will lead to reduced emission of air pollutants from the ships," explains Jens Holm, Chair of the Board at Ports of Stockholm.
Ports of Stockholm also works jointly with other ports to increase sustainability within the cruise segment. Together with the ports in Copenhagen/Malmö, Aarhus, and Helsinki, Ports of Stockholm has been awarded EU grant funding to invest in onshore power connection facilities for the cruise ships. This means that cruise ships in port do not need to have their auxiliary engines running. For Ports of Stockholm's part of the project, the funding supports the installation of onshore power facilities at quay-berths S167 (ready in 2023) and S160 (ready in 2024) at the city central Stadsgården quay.
