Europe’s largest and most important cruise tourism exhibition

On the 6th to 8th of September, Europe’s largest and most important cruise tourism exhibition and conference “Seatrade Europe 2017” took place in the German city of Hamburg, gathering cruise port cities of the world, shipping companies and services providers working in the cruise industry, i.e. excursion and tour operators, as well as service industry companies from 40 countries around the world.

At the Cruise Europe cruise association stand , advertising Riga as an attractive destination for cruise ships in the Baltic Sea Region and telling about tourist services in Riga and port infrastructure possibilities for accepting cruise ships, along with the Riga Tourism Development Bureau and the Riga Passenger Terminal, Riga was also represented by Ansis Zeltiņš, CEO of the Freeport of Riga Authority, and Edgars Sūna, Director of the Marketing Department of the Freeport of Riga Authority.

During the exhibition, several meetings with cruise lines took place at the City of Riga and the Freeport stand regarding visits of ships planned in 2018-2019.

Bernd Aufderheide, President and CEO of Hamburg Messe und Congress GmbH., the organiser of the exhibition and conference, emphasised the following at the opening: “Holiday cruises are currently a prospering industry in the world and a market of opportunities; and with the number of passengers increasing, the market is stably growing!” We have observed it at the port of Riga as well; compared to 2016, the number of cruise ship passengers in the capital has increased by 33.6 percent.

“Seatrade Europe” traditionally takes place in Hamburg once every two years.