MEDIA

06 Sep 2023

GPH grows network in Northern Europe with Bremerhaven Cruise Port

Global Ports Holding Plc ("GPH"), the world's largest independent cruise port operator, is pleased to announce that, it has been awarded a 10-year port concession agreement, with a potential 5-year extension option, by bremenports GmbH & Co. KG (“bremenports”) on behalf of the city of Bremen regarding the operations at the Cruise Terminal Columbusbahnhof Bremerhaven (“Bremerhaven Cruise Port”). The start date of the port concession agreement is January 2025 when Bremerhaven Cruise Port is expected to join GPH’s network.

The addition of this port to GPH’s network marks an important step in GPH’s planned expansion into the Northern Europe cruise market, the location of the port means it is ideally located for Scandinavian and Baltic Sea itineraries. The cruise facilities at Bremerhaven Cruise Port are currently undergoing a multimillion-euro investment by the local authorities, which once completed will expand and renew the port facilities. In 2022, Bremerhaven Cruise Port welcomed over 230k passengers, with over 90% of these being homeport passengers.

The award is the result of a transparent and open tender process run by bremenports in accordance with EU tender rules.

Experienced operator
GPH has significant experience of operating cruise ports to global best-practice standards and has unrivalled knowledge and understanding of the equipment and infrastructure requirements for transforming cruise ports to meet the needs of the modern cruise industry. GPH focuses on creating the best bespoke operating model for each port, utilising our proprietary GPH operating framework to deliver global best practices to every cruise port it operates.

Our ‘all stakeholder’ approach ensures the thoughtful development of cruise ports and destinations by addressing the needs of passengers, cruise lines, crew, ports, regulators and destinations. We look forward to working in partnership with local stakeholders to promote the attractiveness and connectivity of Bremerhaven Cruise Port and surrounding attractions to cruise lines and cruise passengers.

Global ports Holding Chairman/CEO, Mehmet Kutman said:
“I am delighted that bremenports has awarded GPH the cruise port concession for Bremerhaven Cruise Port. This concession represents another significant step in our ambitions to grow our global cruise port network and to expand our operations in Northern Europe.

The award is a further endorsement of our operating capabilities and the benefits our stakeholder partnership approach can bring to cruise destinations, passengers and the local population. The GPH team look forward to working with all stakeholders to build further on the success of Bremerhaven Cruise Port.”

A press conference will be held on 26 September 2023, in Bremerhaven, where we will provide further insight into the details of this partnership and outline our plans for future endeavours in Bremerhaven. We invite the media to join us.