Cruise passengers very satisfied with the port
The turnover realised from cruise shipping in Rostock-Warnemünde and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern amounted to Euro 45.9 million in 2018. This is the outcome of a study conducted by the Kiel Institute for Tourism and Recreational Research in Northern Europe, for which not only passengers and crew members, but also various trade sources were interviewed last year.
The cruise port of Rostock-Warnemünde notched up 206 port calls by passenger vessels last year and 196 this year. If one extrapolates that number, the result is Euro 43.3 million in earnings for Rostock and MecklenburgVorpommern in the year 2019.
The survey showed the following spending behaviour of passengers who spent time in Rostock-Warnemünde: passengers who go on shore excursions and/or transit passengers spend about 43 Euro per head, passengers embarking or disembarking here spend about 58 Euro and the crew members on shore leave spend about 55 Euro. Some of the passengers embarking or disembarking here spend money on accommodation and parking fees in addition. All told, cruise passengers and crews spend just under Euro 29 million in the city and the region each season. The indirect cost of ship operation for things like stores, fuel, pilots, brokers and port charges, among others, add up to around Euro 17 million per year.
This season the cruise port on river Warnow counted around 272,000 transit passengers (2018: 268,000), of whom 86,000 went on a day trip to Berlin by rail, bus or car while 186,000 passengers set out to discover Warnemünde, Rostock or Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on day trips. About 181,000 cruise passengers started or ended their cruise in the passenger port at the mouth of river Warnow (2018: 194,000).
The port of Rostock-Warnemünde scored a high level of customer satisfaction both among passengers embarking or disembarking and among transit passengers. On a scale of one to five (from very satisfied to very dissatisfied) both groups of passengers rated the port at an average mark of 1.7. Compared to earlier surveys the passengers embarking or disembarking rated the port slightly higher and the transit passengers rated it a little lower.
„Cruise shipping in our port is not only a national and international trademark for Rostock and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, it also adds considerable value to our regional economy. The infrastructure projects now under way, such as the construction of another passenger terminal and of a shore-based electricity supply facility for ships moored at berths P7 and P8 as well as the conversion of the railway station in Warnemünde, which will add a ground-level access for pedestrians between the cruise terminal and the station, will all contribute to improving traffic flows and enhancing the attractiveness of the cruise port of Rostock-Warnemünde ,” states Jens A. Scharner, Managing Director of the port operator ROSTOCK PORT.