Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg at the International cruise exhibition Seatrade Сruise Med 2018
21 September 2018
On September 19-20, 2017 representatives of "Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg "Marine Façade" PLC together with representatives of tourism industry of Saint Petersburg took part in the International cruise exhibition Seatrade Сruise Med 2018, which was held in Feira Internacional de Lisboa congress center in Lisbon.
Seatrade Сruise Med 2018 is a leading event in the sphere of cruise industry of the Mediterranean region. Regardless of cruise sector you represent, participation of each player is valuable, according to exhibition organizers. Seatrade Сruise Med offers and opportunity to share experience with the leaders of industry, inspiration by market innovations, networking which helps develop business.
This years organizers claimed 2,600 professionals of cruise industry, 160 exhibitors, 60 countries and 30 cruise lines. The key message of 2018 exhibition is networking. For this purpose, special mobile application Seatrade Cruise Med app was launched, which helps planning and making arrangements, search and look through profiles of potential partners. Besides, Seatrade Cruise Med stated that from now on the exhibition is held during two, instead of three, days, as it was back in 2016, however working time of exhibition is extended. Also conference schedule has been extended.
As part of international exhibition, a number of meetings of PP SPb MF, PLC management with representatives of leading cruise companies and associations like Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, Viking Ocean Cruises, CLIA Europe, Cruise Europe, as well as with representatives of Pionersky sea terminal in Kaliningrad was held, where the parties discussed prospects of further beneficial cooperation and development of cruise industry in the Baltic sea region and in Saint Petersburg, in particular. The key topics of negotiations were the results of introduction of time-slot system, prospects of large dimension ships entry into Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg, as well as conduct of international specialty events in Saint Petersburg.
The parties exchanged their views on International conference Cruise Europe which was successfully held in Saint Petersburg and took place for the first time in the Russian Federation this April. The conference was organized by the Committee for Tourism Development of Saint Petersburg represented by SPb GKU Congress and Exhibition Bureau, and "Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg "Marine Façade" PLC.
Apart from Seatrade Сruise Med 2018 exhibition, the delegation of Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg also visited a new terminal of Lisbon cruise port and got acquainted with its infrastructure. Lisbon cruise port belongs to Global Ports holding, the largest cruise terminal operator in the world. It’s worth mentioning, that Lisbon was recognized as the leading European port and cruise destination within World Travel Awards held in 2016.
New cruise terminal of Lisbon is a modern interpretation of vibrant life of Portugal capital. It was finished in November 2017, with 24 million Euro of investment and two years of construction. Terminal building has already won a number of prizes, like “Best City Refurbishment Project”. Terminal capacity is 1.8 million persons a year, total area is 13,800 m2, with no limits for ship dimensions. In 2017, the port received 521,043 passengers (462,127 transit and 58,916 passengers of cruise start and finish).
In the course of negotiations, representatives of cruise lines expressed their satisfaction with the quality of services rendered in Passenger Port of Saint Petersburg and confirmed their plans regarding the growth of performance for the next season.
The results were summarized during business dinner, which was attended by representatives of cruise lines, including Harald Von Der Osten-Sacken, Vice President of Costa Group Destination Management Sourcing, Chris Allen, Vice President of Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Roberta Jacoby, Managing Director for Coastal Services of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
