Berlin emerging as a cruise tourism destination in Baltic region

Thursday, June 8, 2023

For a long time now, Berlin has been a magnet for premium travellers from all over the world and the city is on its way to becoming one of the most interesting cruise destinations in Europe.

Today, Berlin is already involved in various cruise programmes on rivers such as the Elbe, Havel and Oder. The large and primarily American cruise ships in Rostock, which offer one day out in Berlin as a part of their program, have a much larger capacity of passengers. In the coming years, Berlin and Rostock are hoping to strengthen their position, which is already quite favourable: They wish to become a part of the cities that are blooming. Together, they will hold the position of the “Gateway to the Baltic” for the American market and will be marketed as pre- and post-programme destinations for cruises.

The Americans are fans of Berlin: The USA is Berlin’s top foreign market for the first time ever

Berlin is a hot and trending metropolis for American visitors. In 2022, the USA proved to be the most significant foreign market for Berlin for the very first time. Apart from the dollar being strong, one of the main reasons for this was the new direct connections. More than 340,000 Americans spent around 1,005,000 nights in Berlin hotels. Having said that, the capital of Germany is the topmost travel destination for the Americans amongst all the cities in Germany.

As a high-end destination, Berlin offers everything that an international cruise traveller seeks

Unforgettable experiences along with everything that one might possibly want in order to have an exclusive time in the capital city of Germany: Berlin has, by far, the greatest and the most state-of-the-art hotel capacities near the Baltic Sea, with BER as a growing modern international airport, excellent train connections to the Baltic Sea, an incredibly wide range of year-round cultural offerings, the history of Berlin, which seems to be of great interest to the American guests, and the residing experts needed for the international cruise.  Extraordinary and exclusive discoveries – that is typical Berlin.

Rostock is no. 1 in Germany for the American market

Today, the ports of Rostock and Warnemünde, which lie merely 230 kilometres to the north of Berlin, are already the most frequented ports for American ships. Rostock has been popular for the German source market for many years; approx. 150,000 guests arrive in and depart from Rostock every year. In the recent years, the entire passenger area in Warnemünde has been expanded and modernised to keep up with the increasing amount of guests, luggage and transport.

Close networking with regional and national partners

visitBerlin works closely with its partners from the hotel industry, which is represented by Partnerhotel e.V. and DEHOGA, with logistics partners such as the German railways Deutsche Bahn (DB) which operates the excursion trains for cruise guests between Berlin and Warnemünde, the BER airport and the Rostock port, as well as with “time change”, which is Germany’s leading agency for land services. These partners have set their sights on making Berlin an innovative and long-term cruise destination.

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