New cruise ship will bring 100,000 cruise tourists to Bergen

Bryggen in Bergen.Photo: Marianne Løvland / NTB scanpix

One of the world’s largest cruise ships will visit Bergen 19 times in 2020, bringing 100,000 new cruise tourists to the city.

The German ship MS “Iona” is under construction in Papenburg, Germany, with a price tag of nine billion and a capacity of 5,200 passengers, according to Bergens Tidende.

That could mean that the number of cruise tourists will increase by 100,000 next year to 700,000 in total, according to BT.

According to a recent survey from Innovation Norway, discontent is high among two-thirds of locals in tourist areas along the coast: 69 percent said tourists bring in garbage; 62 percent said they destroy nature and 65 percent want to introduce a tourist tax.

The revised Port and Waters Act, which was passed in the Storting this summer, is intended to help local authorities regulate cruise traffic.

However, the Ministry of Transport and Communications emphasised that to reject the number of cruise passengers arriving at ports simply because they cause too much burden for the city, is not a good enough reason.

“The challenge is that we still need to welcome these cruise ships. We should have had a better legal basis to support us. In the absence of this, we have entered into a dialogue with the shipping companies to create a common understanding of the challenges in Bergen, and how we can best solve these together,” said Port Director Johnny Breivik at the Bergen Harbour.

   © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today

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