Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 10:57 by saarema
This cruise summer in Saaremaa reached a record - cruise vessels called at Saaremaa Harbour for 14 times, bringing 6456 tourists to see the island. This is the best achievement through years, placing Saaremaa on a favorable position among smaller cruise destinations of the Baltic Sea. During the 2013 season, nine different vessels of nine cruise companies, called at Saaremaa Harbour. Three cruise companies (P&O Cruises, Star Clippers, Birka Cruises) had their first experience offering a different glimpse of Estonia to their tourists. The rest of the companies had visited Estonia also during previous seasons. Cruise vessels brought tourists from very different nationalities to Saaremaa. The majority of tourists visiting Saaremaa were English, Germans, Swedish, Norwegians, Finnish and Americans.
<!--break--> This year brought some more records to Saaremaa - a 231 m long vessel Artania called at Saaremaa. The length of the vessel exceeded even the length of the berth (200 m). Mostly, cruise vessels left Saaremaa Harbour on the same day they arrived, but one vessel stayed longer. Cruise vessel Deutschland, being the first to visit Saaremaa this year, arriving on May 26th and departing on May 27th, stayed the longest or for 23 hours. Since the opening of Saaremaa Harbour in 2006 or during eight seasons, 25 different vessels of 18 different cruise companies have called at the harbour and these vessels have made a total of 51 calls at the harbour. 25 332 cruise passengers have been brought to see the island. For 2014, presently 10 calls by 6 different cruise vessels have been booked, one m/s Delphin will call at Saaremaa for the first time.
