Increasingly more passenger ships at the quays of the Port of Gdansk

01.09.2004

August 19 this year saw a call of the passenger ship "Island Sky", which marked a close of this year's sea tourism season at the Port of Gdansk. "Island Sky" was the last of 28 cruise liners calling at the Port of Gdansk.

This number has been much larger than was the case over the previous years as in 2003 for instance there were only 7 calls of the kind. Undoubtedly, an increased number of calls came as a result of the intensive actions taken towards acquiring new vessels, however, on the other hand, the objective arguments are becoming prevailing. Traditionally, it is the Port of Gdynia that became the popular destination for passenger ships and this trend has been maintained up to the present day. Although the attractiveness of the city of Gdynia cannot be denied, tourists in general wish to see Gdansk and its historical quarters. Considered the usually brief stay of passenger ships at the port - a lengthy coach trip from Gdynia to Gdansk (and back) presents a substantial and irremediable loss of time. This can only be avoided with a passenger ship calling at the Port of Gdansk. Even more so, as on June 4 this year, "Island Sky" inaugurated the calling of passenger ships to the Westerplatte Ferry Terminal thus enabling tourists to travel over the suspension bridge, which considerably reduces the distance and the time of reaching the historical centre of Gdansk.

Providing passenger ships with the berthing facilities of the Westerplatte Ferry Terminal greatly contributed to an intensified traffic of smaller-sized vessels (90 meters in length), as well as larger-sized ones (with the length exceeding 200 meters) in the Port of Gdansk. In particular, this could be seen on days when at the quays of Oliwskie and the Westerplatte Ferry Terminal there were as many as three passenger vessels berthed at the same time (see the photos below).

This year's high season has already come to an end, however, arrangements are already in progress to compile a list of calls for the year 2005. Our hope is that the upcoming year will prove equally successful, or perhaps even better. At the present moment, the list of calls already comprises as much as 10 entries.

Selected passenger ships to have called at the Port of Gdansk during the 2004 summer season: