By
Rebecca Gibson |
Almost 800,000 cruise passengers are expected to have visited ports in Cruise Norway’s network by the end of 2018 – a 7% rise from the 2017 season.
In total, these passengers are expected to make more than 3.2 million port visits by December. This marks a second consecutive record-breaking year after 750,000 passengers made more than three million visits to Norway’s ports in 2017.
According to Cruise Norway, cruise passengers have primarily come from Germany and the UK this season, although there has also been “significant growth” in the number of travellers coming from Southern Europe and the US.
Growth is also being driven by increased demand for expedition-style cruises.
“Norway is also benefiting from the unprecedented size of the cruise industry order book, which is partly being driven by new demand for expedition cruise ships,” said Inge Tangerås, managing director of Cruise Norway, in the organisation’s latest newsletter. “Along with the parallel demand for more technology to meet heightened environmental-based regulations, this is driving business growth for Norwegian shipyards and suppliers of maritime technology.