Cruise Aalborg

The City of Aalborg, as a cruise ship destination, began in 2010 with a cooperative venture between the Port of Aalborg and Visit Aalborg.

Following the exciting transformation of Aalborg’s harbour front, from a classic commercial port to a new open, public area offering wonderful experiences for both local residents and visitors; Aalborg City Council invited the Port of Aalborg and Visit Aalborg, to take advantage of the newly created ‘Royal Cruise Berth’, a feature central to the port’s transformation, and ‘sell’ it as a cruise ship destination.

Researching further it was discovered that, just outside Hals at the mouth of the fjord, cruise ships wishing to dock in Aalborg would have to negotiate a very narrow channel and a tight turning approach to access the Limfjord, before they could sail the picturesque route up to the Royal Berth Quay. This meant Aalborg could only take cruise ships with a maximum length of 250 meters, which immediately excluding more than 50% of cruise ships passing the mouth of the Limfjord on their way to and from the Baltic Sea.

5 unique selling points

In line with this invitation, it was decided to differentiate Aalborg as a cruise ship destination from its competitors, by focusing on five unique selling points:

• 90 minutes scenic sailing up the Limfjord
• docking in the heart of the city centre
• accommodating one cruise ship in port at a time
• provide the best hosting and hospitality experiences
• The best guide corps in the world

Notwithstanding this, representatives from the Port of Aalborg and Visit Aalborg travelled around the world to meet cruise line executives and decision makers, to extol Aalborg’s virtues and persuade them to consider the city as a destination. The results of their work can be seen on the graph attached; it shows how, over a short period of time, Aalborg has become a successful cruise destination.