Airport, Harbor Seal Tourism Deal with Spanish Happy Cruises
At a cruise ship conference in Miami last week, Tallinn Airport and the Port of Tallinn closed a deal with Spanish travel company Happy Cruises that would for the first time make Tallinn a departure point.
Ususally cruise ships on the Baltic Sea make just a short stop in Tallinn, so that tourists can explore the old town for a few hours before reembarking, wrote Postimees.
This summer, Happy Cruises will organize five one-way cruises to and from Estonia, each with 850 travelers, said Sirle Arro, business manager for cruises at the Port of Tallinn. Tourists, embarking from either Copenhagen or Tallinn, will travel one way by ship and the other by airplane. Their cruise will make stops in St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm and Visby.
Tallinn Airport will be able to fly around 8,000 cruise tourists and charge an airport service fee for 20 charter flights. Spanish cruise companies are among the few that arrange charter flights. For that reason Tallinn Airport can't expand this niche until there are more regular flights available.
Ott Tammik