Overview
The cruise shipping sector in the Baltic Sea region has grown enormously in the last decade. From 2001 to 2013 cruise ship calls (visits by a cruise ship at a port) grew by a total of 59 % (1,601 to 2,552), and passenger visits increased by over 260 % (1.2 million to 4.4 million). Cruise tourism is expected to continue growing in the Baltic Sea region. Meeting the fast growing demand and the associated environmental requirements in the cruise sector in a strategic, sustainable manner is necessary. Because the “cruise product” is transnational by its nature, only a joint planning process of ports in the region will have lasting results.
Feasibility Study on Smart Cruise Port Traffic Solutions (including accessibility) and Economic Effects in Klaipeda and its region and relevant Smart Application for accessibility.
Funding
Results
Smart Cruise Port Traffic Solutions (including accessibility) and Economic Effects – Passenger Behaviour and Smart Traffic Links with the City and the Near – Hinterland e ports by including additionally IT-based functionalities / solutions i.e. creating a software on accessibility and guidance.
In the project, the port authorities of eight large cruise ports in the Baltic Sea region joined forces, namely Hamburg (Germany), Rostock (Germany), Klaipeda (Lithuania), Riga (Latvia), Tallinn (Estonia), Helsinki (Finland), Bergen (Norway) and Esbjerg (Denmark) for an ambitious approach towards green cruise ports. The port authority RosMorPort which operates the ports of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad (Russia) contributed as well. Together with the cruise lines AIDA and TUI as well as researchers from the Maritime Institute in Gdansk they looked into smart solutions for greener cruise ports in terms of sustainable energy supply and innovative emission reduction, cruise terminal buildings and innovative reception facilities and maritime and landside cruise terminal traffic links and published a series of thematic studies in each of those fields. A study on "Sustainable energetic solutions for the cruise terminal building in Northern climate" laid the fundament for an engineer-layout of a smart cruise terminal building at the Port of Tallinn. The new terminal was built 2019.