Estonia, Port, Tourism, Transport

Freight handled by the ports of Port of Tallinn totaled 19.2 million tons, which is 5% less than in 2016. The number of passengers served at the company's ports increased 4% to a record 10.6 million people, the company said.

The decline in the freight carried was due to liquid cargo, while all other freight categories increased, chairman of the port company's supervisory board Aare Tark said.

"An increase in the number of passengers gives Tallinna Sadam a reason to rejoice for already 10 years in a row. The most popular ship route continues to be Tallinn-Helsinki, where 8.3 million people were carried during the year. For the first time ever the number of passengers carried on the Tallinn-Stockholm route exceeded one million. Cruise ships visited the ports of Port of Tallinn 316 times and brought 566,000 tourists to Estonia," Tark said.

TS Laevad, a subsidiary of Port of Tallinn, carried 2.23 million passengers and 950,000 vehicles between mainland and Estonia's large western islands during its first year of operation on the routes.

In 2017 the company paid 48 million euros of dividend to the state coffers as well as income tax of 12 million euros.