CruiseCopenhagen (Denmark) revealed it was aiming to contribute to sustainable growth with the new 2024 strategy.
The United Nations' framework of the strategy (UN Sustainable Development Goals) ensures that sustainability is the strategy's central factor.
The industry’s growth is currently challenged globally by factors like local community support and sustainability, which is why the CruiseCopenhagen 2024 strategy is revolving around the challenges.
The UN SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) provide a comprehensive framework to the CruiseCopenhagen strategy. The board chose and prioritized working with 3 guiding goals: Affordable & Clean Energy, Sustainable Cities, Communities & Partnerships for the Goals.
The analysis of the local community support is to be accompanied by this mapping. CruiseCopenhagen already identified some of the common perceptions and possible efforts in order to ensure local community support. A popular opinion among locals is that cruisers spend little money during their stay in the port city.
According to Claus Bodker (CruiseCopenhagen's Director), the cruise shipping industry contributed to EUR 168 million annually.
"We need to change the narrative and tell the real story about cruise tourism in all of Denmark. This also applies to perceptions about the emissions of cruises – we back OPS, but we realize that it is not possible in each port without public funding. We cannot stress enough that sustainability is highest on the agenda in the cruise industry.”
The actions are consistent with the 4 pillars of the brand new strategy: focused involvement of the local communities, effective marketing, improved image, uplifted tourist experiences.