Cruise Ship Tourism Returns to Ukraine
When a cruise ship visits a port, it means money. The boat’s passengers spend their cash in the port and its owners buy local port services. So it’s not surprising that coastal cities all over the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions compete to lure cruise ships to their harbors. The competition is even more intense since cruise ship passengers may return on their own in the future to a particular port town they enjoyed.
Crimea has a lot to offer to tourists, from both cultural and geographical perspectives. Situated at the historical crossroads of the Slavic, Ottoman and Greek cultures, its geography and climate are comparable to those of California, Turkey and other desirable destinations.
During the Soviet era, Crimea used to welcome over 300 cruise ships a year. Unfortunately, most ships disappeared with the economic disintegration that followed Ukrainian independence and with many tourists choosing to travel outside the former Soviet Union. In the 1990s, if Crimea attracted 20 ships each season, it was considered a good year. The situation got better by 2000, but even that lackluster recovery was hit hard by the fallout from the September 11 terrorist attacks, which damaged the global tourist trade. Poor infrastructure, an ineffective regulatory environment and a lack of a coherent promotion strategy today continue to restrain the development of a promising sector.
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The Select Black Sea team negotiates with potential business partners at Ukraine’s
booth at the recent Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami
Photo Credit: Oleh Sereda |
In an analysis on how to develop Ukraine’s economy called, Ukraine: Competing in the Global Economy – Strategies for Success, the USAID-funded BIZPRO project identified tourism as a sector holding much potential for Ukraine’s economy. With the goal of making the Black Sea peninsula again a major part of the Mediterranean cruise market (which accounts for 60% of all cruises worldwide), BIZPRO and its stakeholders helped send a Ukrainian delegation to the 22nd International Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention, held in Miami, Florida. This marked the first time that Ukraine was represented at the world’s biggest international cruise industry event. Crimea’s delegation included representatives of Crimea’s ports and of cruise tourism companies. Ukraine’s on-site information booth highlighted tourism companies and agencies, and sketched out development possibilities for Crimean port towns. The emphasis was put on the Black Sea region’s recent resurgence after more than a decade of decline.
At the Convention, joint initiatives for 2007 were discussed with cruise industry leaders like Royal Caribbean, Celebrity International and NCL, several of which indicated an interest in expanding their cruise operations in the Black Sea region, and the Ukrainian delegation succeeded to in signing several memoranda of intents. These developments have facilitated the extension of the current cruise season in the biggest Black Sea ports Odesa, Yalta by two months; it now runs from March through November. This year, the city of Kerch is hosting an unprecedented four cruises. Ten to 15 more per year are expected in the nearest future, as the city of Feodosia opens to cruise tourism. Yalta will have seen 70 cruise ship call by the end of 2006 (a 32% increase from 2005). With American cruise companies scheduled to return next year for the first time since September 2001, expectations for robust growth are even higher.
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