During the festive season, many of the Atlantic Alliance ports are welcoming, not for the first time, cruise ships at their quays. Those ships are on special Christmas themed cruises, an ever more interesting niche, from which everybody involved in the cruise business can benefit, the organisation said in a statement.

Last year the ports of the Atlantic Alliance have already been quite busy during the festive season. Due to the great success of the Christmas cruises, so far mainly for the English source market, some member ports of the Atlantic Alliance  are now handling a number of cruise calls during the month of December.

“Visiting the European Christmas markets is an ever increasing winter cruise theme with a lot of potential for future growth, especially for our region”, Atlantic Alliance’s manager Nadine Palatz commented. One of the main benefits for a cruise line is to have a very special and alternative program to the Caribbean and Mediterranean for the passenger. The passengers can enjoy a unique, festive, winter atmosphere. At Christmas time in Europe, almost nothing gets people into the holiday spirit like a Christmas market. The smell of mulled wine, chestnuts, wurst and traditional Christmas desserts such as the Spanish almond-based „turrón“ wafts through the air.

The other main benefit is that the cruise line doesn’t need to reposition its ship to a far away destination and as such can make big savings in fuel consumption. Furthermore, the ports also benefit from an extended season, making better use of their terminal facilities during the quieter winter season. Last but not least, the local tourism authorities and shopping malls are of course happy to welcome cruise passengers to their cities for Christmas shopping and their Christmas markets.

To attract more winter cruise traffic in the future, the member ports have developed a virtual Christmas tour, which makes the theme cruise idea more accessible for everyone. The emotive virtual tour gives a taste of actually being there and has the unbeatable advantage of being able to convey impressions and atmosphere much better than pictures.