On October 17, the moorage of Marco Polo cruise ship in the Old City Harbour ends this year’s cruise season in Tallinn.

On board of season’s final cruise ship will be 698 mostly British cruise passengers, who began their cruise from London on October 11. Marco Polo comes to Tallinn from Warnemünde and after a 6-hour stay sails on to St. Petersburg.

According to Sirle Arro, Port of Tallinn’s Head of Marketing and Communication Department, five cruise ships called Tallinn this October, which is quite unusual but a good indicator of season’s lengthening in the Baltic Sea region.  

 

“Visits in October resemble the ones in summer time – cruise passengers get acquainted with Tallinn’s Old Town, while visiting different cafes and restaurants. There’s also a possibility to enjoy a folk dance show or take tours to the Estonian Open Air Museum or Kadriorg. In October, off peak-season, there are less tourists in town, which enables people in service sector to pay special attention to foreign visitors. On the negative side, the weather in October can be quite unpredictable,“ explained Ms. Arro.

 

This year’s cruise season brought to Estonia altogether more than 498,000 cruise passengers, which is 5.4 per cent more than a year before. There were 278 cruise ship calls to Tallinn, which is 19 calls less than last year. Cruise ships called Saaremaa harbour five times this year bringing 3623 people to the Estonia’s biggest island.

 

According to Ms. Arro, this is a perfect example of cruise business trend of ships getting bigger year by year. “Although we had less cruise ship visits this year, the number of cruise passengers keep increasing,“ added Arro.     Most popular month per number of visits was July, when 74 cruise ships together with 135,925 passengers visited Estonia. The largest cruise ships that visited Tallinn were 330-meter Regal Princess and Britannia.

 

Based on Port of Tallinn’s prognosis, cruise numbers for next year will be similar or a bit higher than this year.  Based on current data, there are exactly the same number of cruise ship calls planned for 2016 – 278 cruise calls to Tallinn and 5 to Saaremaa.