Ghent (Belgium)

Ghent (aka Gent) is a Scheldt River cruise port and city in Belgium's Flemish Region (West Flanders province). Port Ghent allows access also to the city of Bruges - province's capital, largest city and major tourism travel destination. These European river cruise deals are inclusive of the bus travel between Ghent and Bruges. The city's population is around 240,000 (metro around 600,000). ranking it Belgium's 4th most populous.

Port Ghent is accessed by Ghent-Terneuzen Canal, ending near the Dutch port Terneuzen (on Western Scheldt River).

• Among the most popular events is the 10-day-long "Ghent Festival" (music and theatre themed festival) attended by over 1,5 million visitors. The festival starts on the Friday before July 21 each year.
• The numerous parks in Ghent can be considered to be major tourist attractions. Most notably, the city boasts a nature reserve (230 ha Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen) and a recreation park (87 ha Blaarmeersen).
• Among others, the port houses big companies, such as Honda, Volvo Cars, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Parts, Stora Enso and ArcelorMittal.
• Ghent University and several research oriented companies (Ablynx, Bayer Cropscience, Cropdesign, Innogenetics) are located in the central and southern part of the city.

As the largest in East-Flanders, Ghent City has many schools, hospitals and shopping streets. The largest event hall in Flanders and 2nd largest in Belgium, Flanders Expo is also found in Ghent. Tourism is becoming the most important in the area.

North Sea Port (Ghent)

In 2017, Port Ghent reported a record year for cargo shipping traffic. For the period January-September 2017, the increased vessel traffic resulted in handled 24,4 million tons of ocean cargo (or 13,4% increase over 2016) and 17,1 million tons of inland waterways cargo (3,4% increase). The combined handled cargo (41,6 million tons) was the ever highest, and an increase of 95 (3,5 million tons) over the same period of 2016.

On December 8, 2017, was signed the merger agreement between Ghent Port Company and Zeeland Seaports.

• All 8 shareholders of both seaport companies agreed the cross-border merger port to be named "North Sea Port".
• The new port represents the 60-km (37 ml) long cross-border port area - Flushing, Borsele - Terneuzen (Holland) up to Ghent (Belgium), and covers a total land area of almost 1000 hectares (10 km2 / 3,9 ml2). The merger also resulted in increased efficiency, economy and lack of overlapping activities, which means lower operational costs and savings, as well as cheaper services (rates) for maritime customers.
• North Sea Port was immediately ranked among Europe's best in numbers of added value (ranked 3rd) and cargo transhipment (ranked 10th). By 2022, the combined port planned to increase the added value by 10%, the ocean shipping traffic up to 70 million tons (as of 2017 - 62 million tons) and the inland shipping traffic up to 60 million tons (in 2017 - 55 million tons). The port's employment was expected to grow from 97,000 to 100,000 jobs (direct and indirect).