Dredging at two berths of Vladivostok will let the port accommodate large cruise liners from 2018 (photo)

The prospects of large cruise ships’ calls at the port of Vladivostok were discussed at the meeting headed by Vasily Usoltsev, First Deputy to the Primorsky Territory Governor. According to the press center of the regional government, dredging at the two berths of Vladivostok (No 1 and No 2) will let the port accommodate large cruise liners sailing in the North East Asia from the next cruise season.

As of today, the fleet of cruise companies operating in the North East Asia consists of cruise ships of the fourth generation, Ovation or Quantum type. The largest ship, which is 348 meter long can accommodate almost 5,000 passengers.

As Valery Nagorny, Director General of Vladivostok Sea Terminal LLC, said at the meeting, the interest to calling at the port of Vladivostok was expressed not only by Russian companies.

“We have held discussions with the management of cruise companies’ headquarters responsible for NEA region including Royal Caribbean International, one of the largest companies in terms of the fleet number and capacity, as well as with Norwegian Cruise Line. A number of companies showed their interest to the port of Vladivostok as a new cruise destination and expressed their readiness to include it into their routes in 2018 and start selling cruises including the calls to our city”, he said.

As of today, seaport of Vladivostok can accommodate vessels of up to 350 m in length but their maximum draught should not exceed 8.5-8.6 m. Therefore, the mentioned cruise ships cannot call at the port today.

To ensure accommodation of large capacity vessels the depth at berths No 1 and No 2 should be increased and a number of measures should be undertaken to develop the port infrastructure. In June 2017, Rosmorport approved the project of dredging works as well as a roadmap for infrastructure development to ensure accommodation of large cruise ships at the port of Vladivostok.

“Designing of dredging works is underway, it is to be completed by the end of October with the construction works to be performed in the first half of 2018”, said the Primorsky Territory’s Department of Transport and Road Facilities.

Vasily Usoltsev emphasized that regular calls of large capacity ships to the port of Vladivostok will give a strong impetus to the development of cruise tourism in the Primorsky Territory and contribute a lot to the regional economy. Therefore, the project on the development of port infrastructure requires coordinated and efficient work of all ad hoc authorities.

Vladimir Miklushevsky, Primorsky Territory Governor earlier approved the development of cruise tourism in the region as one of the tourism industry priorities.