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In May 865,750 passengers passed through the ports of Estonia's state-owned Port of Tallinn, 9.2 percent more than in the same month of the previous year.
Estonia's Port of Tallinn reports record number of passengers in May
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The May figure is the best ever monthly result for both regular line and cruise passengers, Port of Tallinn said.
«Compared to last year, the number of regular route passengers grew in May in all directions - Helsinki, Stockholm and St. Petersburg alike,» head of the company's marketing and communications department Sirle Arro said.
Passengers on the Tallinn-Helsinki route numbered 675,832, on the Tallinn-Stockholm route 86,515 and on the St. Petersburg route 23,172. All told 785,519 people traveled on regular routes in May, nearly 8 percent more compared to the year-earlier 729,000.
Tallink served 58 percent, Viking Line 19 percent and Eckero Line 11 percent of the total number of passengers in May. The market share of the Russian shipper St. Peter Line was 3 percent.
Last month also saw the start of the summer cruise season. Tallinn received during the month 80,085 cruise passengers, a record number for the month of May. «A more than 25 percent increase compared to the same month of the previous year shows cruise tourists' continued high interest in Tallinn and other cities around the Baltic Sea,» Arro said.
Port of Tallinn launched in May the construction of a new cruise quay that will be ready to receive longer and deeper ships by the beginning of the next summer season. «Our forecast for this year is that the number of cruise tourists will grow to 480,000 from last year's 440,000, after the new quay goes into service it's bound to rise above half a million,» Arro said.
In the first five months of the year 3,238,159 passengers, 3.7 percent more than the year before, passed through the ports of Port of Tallinn. Passengers on the Tallinn-Helsinki route numbered 2.73 million, making up 84 percent of the total number. Passengers traveling between Estonia and Sweden numbered 359,517 (11 percent) and passengers to and from Russia 59,287 (2 percent).
Cruise tourists numbered 92,104 in the January-May period.