By
Rebecca Gibson |
Cruise Europe celebrates two decades of operation this year. Since its foundation in 1991 by Captain Iain Dunderdale of the Port of Invergordon, the company has developed with the growth of cruising in the region to be one of the continent’s largest cruise networks, with more than 100 partners from Northern Europe.
As membership grew, from its fledgling beginnings, the operation was wholly reorganised financially and to a more professional standard – the culmination of which was the launch of the brand new website in 2009. The year after, the company appointed Jens Skrede as its first managing director.
Having a key presence at Cruise Shipping in Miami and Seatrade Europe and Med each year has become a huge advantage to participating members of Cruise Europe and the organisation also holds an annual AGM, conducts road shows and produces a yearbook to create an awareness of the growing business inside the region.
The AGM has enjoyed increasingly active participation and is now called the Cruise Europe Conference, where key speakers include industry leaders such as Stein Kruse, president and CEO of Holland America, who spoke at this year’s conference in Stavanger, Norway. Delegate feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the access gained to key industry players has been an invaluable tool to players in the local market. “Cruise Europe has brought together most of the major ports in Northern, and much of Western Europe, allowing us as an organisation to reach out to a single source for much of the pertinent and detailed port information needed for planning itineraries,” says Kruse. “It is much more time and cost efficient for us as an organisation, or specifically our itinerary planners, to deal with a group of ports instead of each one individually, whether it’s a website, publication, at a conference or just an office visit. Simply put, it is not possible for our itinerary, port and tour planners to meet with or visit every port that we would like to potentially include in our programmes; hence Cruise Europe brings all of this together for us.”
Cruising in Europe has experienced massive growth since 1991 and the company’s core mission – to bring a voice to its 100 ports and associated members – has enhanced that growth. With this united front, the promotion of the cruise industry has become a major priority for the continent. More than five million Europeans cruised in 2010, and cruise companies are deploying ships here in record numbers. Europe is cruising’s new ‘centre of gravity’, said Carnival’s David Dingle in 2007. It appears to still be a strong cruising region, and growing.
In the meantime, the cruise industry has changed from being small family businesses of tour operators and small lines to huge multinational corporations with massive fleets at their disposal. The diversity of branding has never been greater – mirroring the diverse range of tourists now taking up cruising. Americans once dominated the mix of cruise passengers, now Europeans are closing in and cruising in record numbers. The demographic has also skewed to a younger and more informed cruise passenger, including those who bring their families. Multigenerational cruising, where grandparents, parents and children cruise together, is growing.
Against this backdrop Cruise Europe plays a major role in preparing its member ports for future growth. “To promote a port as one destination is a near impossibility. With the strength in numbers we possess, ports are a far more attractive proposal for potential cruise lines,” says Kruse. “Our website can also facilitate itineraries, as well as an annual yearbook to propose new destinations within the region.”
There are a lot of networks in the industry – national, regional, ad hoc, EU-funded. Some ports left Cruise Europe because they felt these networks represented them in a better way. It’s up to the Cruise Europe leadership to remind ports that the network represents excellent value for the membership fee. In fact, Cruise Europe provides one of the best values of any member organisation for ports.
“I see the future of Cruise Europe going along with the growth of the cruise passengers,” says Dirk Moldenhauer, chairman of Cruise Europe. “They will continue to grow in numbers. Cruise Europe is very important for the cruise lines, and therefore it is important that the ports are members. This is why we are working to make clear to the ports what Cruise Europe can offer them, what our strength is and that none of the ports alone can effectively lobby the European Union nor the ECC nor the cruise lines.”
Cruise Europe will celebrate its 20 year anniversary in the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg on Wednesday 28 September. Guests will include the members, of course, as well as cruise line representatives and the trade press. The event will see food, drink and speeches as Cruise Europe looks forward to its next 20 years, growing hand in hand with the cruise industry.