According to ferry companies, Baltic Sea cruise bookings from Helsinki to Tallinn in Estonia and Stockholm in Sweden are clearly recovering from the prolonged slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The ferry operator Eckerö Line saw almost as many passengers last month as in April 2019, says Director of Marketing and Communications Ida Toika Everi.
"It seems that both domestic travelers and other Europeans are interested in the Nordic countries and Estonia. Finland has been seen in the media around the world, Everi said.
There are practically no passengers from Russia and Asia today, but tourism in the Baltic countries has picked up, according to the company.
Tallink Silja’s passenger numbers have also grown significantly in recent months, says the company’s communications manager. Marika Nöjd.
"There have been a lot of passengers in particular [from Helsinki] To Stockholm, including a lot of families with children. Now bookings for trips to Tallinn are accelerating," Nöjd said.
Last minute cruises
Viking Line launched a new ferry, the MS Glory, in early March and there are already more than 200,000 cruises on the move, says the ferry company’s communications director. Johanna Boijer-Svahnström.
Summer bookings on Viking Line ferries look very promising compared to the last two years.
However, all three companies said it was still difficult to predict the upcoming summer cruise season as people increasingly book their trips at the last minute.
"We hope that our ships will be as crowded in July as in a normal summer, but we still can’t say anything right about the booking situation, as hundreds of bookings can come the day before or even the same day," Tallink Siljan Nojd explained.
The companies also said that the increase in passenger numbers was largely due to the lifting of restrictions related to the coronavirus.
Source: The Nordic Page