Cruise traffic has stopped completely. As a result, Norwegian ports miss out on almost four million visits – with similar financial consequences for local tourism operators.
It’s been two weeks since the last cruise ship docked in Norway. When it comes next, nobody knows. Border control during the corona epidemic makes it practically impossible for cruise passengers to land.
One million passengers were expected at Norwegian ports this season. On average, each passenger goes ashore four times. This means that this year’s season would have given four million visits to popular cruise destinations along the Norwegian coast such as Geiranger, Flåm and Bergen.
– We envisage that there will be very few cruise calls in the future. As it looks now, there will be low cruise traffic in the short and longer term, says Coastal Director Einar Vik Arset at the Norwegian Coastal Administration to NRK.no.
But even though cruise ships and ferries can no longer carry passengers, freight transport is almost normal.
– Fortunately, port-Norway is open. Securing deliveries to Norway is extremely important. Both imports and exports should go as far as possible and as normally as possible, says Arset at the Norwegian Coastal Administration.
The non-profit organization Norske Havner predicts billions of losses as a result of the failure of the cruise visit.
