"At present arrival of 85 cruise ships has been announced and confirmed, and arrival of five cruise ships has been announced, but not yet confirmed," said BNS Leiskalne, adding that it is slightly more than in the previous years – in 2007 the Riga port served 88 cruise ships and slightly less in 2008.
"The ships confirmed this year represent new companies and also those who have been to Riga in the previous years," she said, adding that last year a Japanese cruise ship arrived in Riga for the first time, and this year another Japanese ship will visit Riga again.
Leiskalne said that increase of Japanese tourist activity is a new trend.
Leiskalne said that the maximum number of tourists arriving to Latvia on cruise ships this year might be 82,500. "But we think that in fact there might be 60,000-65,000 people as not always all ships are full," she said.
In 2008, Riga port served 503,174 ship passengers at a 13.9% rise from 2007, including 100,253 cruise ship passengers, down 23.4% from 2007, including 50,176 arriving passengers and 50,077 departing passengers.
Riga is the largest Latvian port both by passenger numbers and cargo turnover.