Cruise

Early this year 2008 was promised to be the best cruise season ever, and that came through. The number of calls increased with 6,5 %, from 138 ship during 2007 to 147 for 2008. Oslo was beaten by Bergen which had 254 calls in 2008. With more than 7000 passengers than Bergen, Oslo is although Norway’s biggest cruise port.

Biggest ships for Oslo
The ships that are visiting the main capitol, are the biggest, with averagely 1629 guests per ship, while the ships heading for Bergen have an average of about 914 per ship. About 240 000 passengers have visited Oslo when the season are closing, and that’s an increase of 25%.

Marketing and bigger ships
The reasons for the cruise record in Oslo, is targeted marketing through several years in co-operation with Visit Oslo and Oslo Cruise Network, and the fact that the ships are bigger than ever with an increase in gross tonnage of 13,8%.

Visiting cruise ships are increasing
Cruise is the kind of holiday that has an enormous growth. The entity of 43 new cruise ships are reserved before 2010, and Oslo will probably have an increase in calls for the future. This is confirmed from the 153 registered ships for the 2009 season.

More cruise passengers for Europe
World wide cruise has had a growth of 8% yearly. In USA 12% choose cruise for their holidays, while in Europe only 1, 5% does. That should give a possibility for an increase in the amount of cruise tourists from Europe.

Cruise: Height of quay above average sea level: 2,20 metres