The topic of this year Cruise and Ferry Passenger Shipping on the Baltic Sea conference was Mass tourism and / or product differentiation, and more than 200 participants from 11 countries took part in it. There were 16 speakers at the conference – the representatives of cruise and ferry lines, international media, travel agencies, port administrations and ship building companies. The Head of Marketing Department of SE Klaipeda State Seaport Authority Kristina Gontier presented the report “The drivers for cruise shipping development in medium size ports – strategy in Klaipėda”.

 

The representatives of cruise and passenger ferry lines who made reports at the conference spoke about a new tendency during this recession period - cruise passengers are becoming more interested to visit the main and biggest Baltic Sea ports.

The other important matter discussed at the conference was – ro-pax ferries that are losing about 20 percent of cargo, therefore, taking into consideration the market changes, those (ro-pax) ferries are being re-oriented to mini cruises( some days) and maybe small and average size ports might be included into the routes including Klaipėda port.

During the international conference they talked about on-shore excursions as well. In order to increase profit from on-shore excursions, cruise lines ask from travel agencies to make wider range of excursions more interesting and exclusive excursions even for smaller number of tourists. The demand for individual excursions was also stressed.

 

After the conference the delegations of Klaipėda port and Lithuanian economic development agency met the representatives of cruise shipping line AIDA. The ships of this cruise line have never visited Klaipėda port. During the meeting where the Head of Marketing Department Kristina Gontier took part, the possibility of the above line to include Klaipėda port into its route in 2011 was discussed.