Cruise Europe will work with members and CLIA to drive European cruise growth, says Jens Skrede
This article was first published in the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of International Cruise & Ferry Review. All information was correct at the time of printing, but may since have changed.
Cruise Europe welcomed several new members in 2016, including associate member and French tour operator BLB Cruises. Other new members include the ports of Harlingen, Netherlands; Portland, UK; Ventspils, Latvia; and Caen – Ouistreham, France. Since Cruise Europe started with 27 ports in 1992, it has grown to 125 members and has a unique geographical spread from Lisbon in Portugal, to St Petersburg in Russia, Norway’s North Cape and Iceland.
As usual, Cruise Europe will be heading to Seatrade Cruise Global in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this March. This year, our CE Pavilion will be a slightly smaller, 65 square metre booth in the central area of the exhibition hall near stand 1621. We will be joined by representatives from the ports of Dublin in Ireland, Riga in Latvia, Zeebrugge in Belgium and Bremerhaven/Wismar in Germany.
We will again offer our popular Monday afternoon reception on 13 March, bringing the cruise industry together by hosting a reception onboard a chartered yacht that will be moored outside the Hilton Marina. Co-sponsored by the ports of Helsinki in Finland and Tallinn in Estonia, the reception will be open to Cruise Europe members, cruise line representatives and the trade press. The vessel will remain berthed during the full reception, enabling busy executives with tight schedules to pop in for a short time.
For our members, the Cruise Europe conference will be the must-attend event of 2017 and this year, we will be in Bremen and Bremerhaven, Germany from 25-27 April. We will start with excursions and internal meetings in Bremen before relocating to Bremerhaven for the full-day international Cruise Europe Conference on 26 April. Several high profile cruise executives have already been confirmed as speakers, and representatives of the German parliament will join a session specifically for German cruise lines.
Cruise Europe is also extending its partnership with Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in 2017, after we signed a letter of intent to collaboratively drive cruise growth in Europe at the Madrid Cruise Summit last November.
As part of a series of new initiatives, we have created a working group to focus on European environmental issues over the next five years. The group will launch in early 2017 and manage a programme of joint activities promoting a European Union framework that supports sustainable shipping operations and environmental protection. CLIA and Cruise Europe will also invest and participate in environmental workshops at major industry events.
“The Cruise Europe management team is looking forward to a collaborative approach with CLIA to drive this exciting industry forward,” says Michael McCarthy, Cruise Europe chairman. “With 25 years of experience, Cruise Europe is well positioned to collaborate and lobby on local, national and international environmental and regulatory issues. This is of paramount importance to our industry and members because the current political climate signals clear protectionist and isolationist policies regarding world trade, environment and travel. We draw on the experience of our Cruise Europe family, which includes 125 ports and associate members.”