Five cruise ships are due to visit Gothenburg in December, the port said in a statement, adding that an increasing number of cruise tourists are coming the city to experience its Christmas atmosphere. This year, 6,000 people will be arriving compared with 2,240 last year.
"When we began working together in 2008, Gothenburg didn't have one single visit by a Christmas cruise ship. But with the intensification of our marketing of the port and the city, there has been a gradual increase in interest," says Jill Söderwall, Head of Cruise Operations at the Port of Gothenburg, referring to cooperation with Gothenburg & Co that promotes tourism to Sweden's second city.
The majority of Christmas cruise tourists are from the UK and Germany. They visit Christmas at Liseberg, they see the light show at Götaplatsen, they buy Christmas presents and they go on guided tours around the city. Christmas City Gothenburg is in fact ranked among the 10 best Christmas markets in Europe (according to the travel website Travelbites).
When the Christmas season is over, Gothenburg can look back on the best cruise year ever. A total of 70 vessels and 84,000 passengers visited the city. Last year, 52 vessels arrived, carrying 64,000 passengers.
"We had more calls this year than planned because of a pilot strike in Oslo but even without that we would have still broken the record," states Jill Söderwall.
Some 50 per cent of the guests are German, 23 per cent are British and 10 per cent are American. A trend in recent years is for travellers from farther afield to find their way to Gothenburg. This year, for example, the city was visited by 924 Mexicans, 930 Japanese and 1,047 Canadians.
