The Port of Copenhagen Malmö (CMP) has postponed the construction of a new cruise terminal at Copenhagen's Oceankaj. With growth prospects in the Copenhagen cruise market, CMP began the bidding process late last year, with a planned completion date of late 2022. However, due to the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the global cruise market, which make it difficult to predict when the market and situation will return to normal, the ongoing process has been canceled and construction of the terminal postponed indefinitely.
Barbara Scheel Agersnap, CEO of CMP, commented: “This is, of course, extremely regrettable… Until a few months ago, we were expecting a record number of cruise ship calls in 2020 and almost one million travelers visiting Copenhagen. However, with the arrival of the crisis accompanying the coronavirus pandemic, global growth has suddenly stalled, including in Copenhagen, where forecasts indicate that the 2020 cruise season will be canceled entirely, followed by some uncertainty in the coming years.”.
“The new terminal was meant to confirm Copenhagen’s position as the hub of cruise tourism in Northern Europe, however, we must now wait for the situation to reverse itself so that we can refocus on developing sustainable cruise tourism for the benefit of the entire region.”
Last year, cruise tourism generated revenues of 735 million DKK (98.6 million euros) in the capital region and approximately 2,400 full-time jobs across Denmark, mostly in Copenhagen.
Once we have a clearer picture of the cruise industry's development, CMP will decide when to resume the process for constructing the new cruise terminal. Henrik Ahlqvist, Director of Cruises and Ferries at CMP, says: “We hope to be able to restart the project next year. We are currently monitoring the authorities' decision regarding the reopening, which, for now, is confirmed for August 31st.”.
