Estonia, Good for Business, Port, Tourism, Transport

"In any case it will be a record year in terms of visits. There will be quite a significant amount of those days where five or six cruise ships per day will come," Sirle Arro, head of communications at the state-owned port company Port of Tallinn (Tallinna Sadam), told BNS.

Arro said that the preliminary estimated number of cruise passengers is 565,000, but added that this is rather a conservative assessment.

The first planned cruise ship is to arrive in Tallinn on April 26, the vessel is called Viking Sea and is able to carry up to 900 passengers. A total of 342 cruise ship visits are expected to come during the season and the last planned visit is to take place on October 20.

Six cruise ships are expected to arrive on July 2, when the vessels arriving in Tallinn could bring up to 11,400 passengers, and on July 12, when the estimated number of passengers to arrive in the capital is 10,300.

The cruise ship with the largest possible number of passengers to arrive in Tallinn this year is the MSC Meraviglia, which was completed last year, sails under the flag of Malta, and is able to carry up to 5,500 passengers.

In addition to the Port of Tallinn, cruise tourists this year are also expected to arrive in the port of the island of Saaremaa, where according to preliminary information nine cruise ships are to be expected this year.

In 2017, cruise ships stopped in Tallinn on 311 occasions and at Saaremaa on five occasions.