Helsinki had a busy ship travel summer
The ship travel summer of Helsinki was slightly busier than last summer. From June to August, regular liner traffic had 3.4 million passengers, while international cruise traffic had 79,700 visitors.
For Finnish people, Helsinki is an important gateway to the world: people can travel from the city by ship to Tallinn, Stockholm and Travemünde.
The summer months are the busiest season for ship travel, as Finns and our neighbours have holiday trips abroad, meet with their relatives and friends and enjoy cruises in addition to their everyday travel. However, the number of passengers from countries such as Russia and China is low today. One of the primary reasons for this is geopolitics, which has closed the border to Russians and changed flight routes from Asia to Finland, among other things.
“Having an increasing number of passengers gives us good conditions for future endeavours. The majority of passengers, up to 79%, travel between Helsinki and Tallinn, and the number of passengers on that route increased slightly from last summer. There is also a steady demand for ship travel to Sweden. The biggest hit of the summer appeared to be cruises to Visby provided by shipping companies in the summer season,” comments the Port of Helsinki’s Vice President of Passenger Services Kaj Takolander.
“Another source of joy for us is that according to a survey we commissioned, even during the busiest season, passenger satisfaction with the Port of Helsinki’s terminal and parking services stayed at a high level.”
In addition to regular liner traffic, the city is visited every year by roughly one hundred international cruise ships on their Baltic Sea round.
“We can see a roughly one-quarter decrease in the number of passengers in international cruise traffic from the previous period of June–August. We have been visited more by small vessels, but these vessels have been occupied almost fully. Now that St. Petersburg is omitted from the round, the market is repositioning itself. On the scale of the Baltic Sea, Helsinki is one of the largest ports,” Takolander muses.
“We see a lot of potential in cruise travel, although the promotion of tourism relies more and more on us and the City. However, passengers like to return to Helsinki thanks to its attractiveness.”
Helsinki and Finland as a destination generates interest among European travellers in particular. Finland’s clean nature, sustainable tourism and pleasant climate are among our international attractions. Even though we had a record-breaking number of hot days this past summer, our weather conditions facilitate pleasant outdoor activities compared to places such as Mediterranean countries with their intensely high temperatures and problems caused by the heat.