More than 2.2 million cruise passengers are expected to visit Port Kiel Germany in 2019, forecasting record numbers including 600,000 travelers and 1.6 million ferry passengers.
In 2018, passengers generated a turnover of around EUR 68 million in Kiel. Ferry ship passengers' consumer spending amounts to over EUR 53 million. These are complemented by EUR 15 million spent by the crews and cruise passengers. EUR 10 million out of the total amount were spent on hotel accommodation in Schleswig-Holstein before or after the cruise.
In 2018, the port Kiel was visited on a total of 169 separate occasions by 34 cruise ships with a total GT (gross tonnage) of over 11.5 million, which is an increase of 15.3 % over 2017. A total of 598,000 cruise passengers boarded/left a ship at the different cruise terminals, which is an increase of 16.5 %.
To date, 179 calls at the port of Kiel by 33 different cruise liners have been registered. Total GT is due to increase to more than 15 million and the number of cruisers could reach 620,000.
This season, the most frequent guests will be the ships of AIDA, Costa, MSC and TUI Cruises, with AIDA and TUI visiting with 4 different ships each. The largest cruise ship in 2019 will be the 171,600 GT MSC Meraviglia. New visitors also include HAL Nieuw Statendam and AIDAprima that will be the first cruise liner to be supplied with eco-friendly LNG during her stay in port.
The regular season starts on March 31 with a visit by Viking Sky and ends mid-October.
The port is constantly expanding port facilities. A second terminal building will be taken into operation at the Ostseekai in the course of the season. Kiel is currently investing EUR 9 million in the new terminal building.