REUTERS
A total of 13 cruise ship visits to the Odesa port were reported in 2017.
Shipping companies plan to carry out 17 cruise ship calls with tourists to the Odesa sea port in 2018.
To date, 17 river-marine vessels' calls have been officially confirmed, the Odesa sea port's press service told UNIAN.
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"London Sky, which last year arranged cruises for German tourists, confirmed its vessel visits, as well," the press service added.
A total of 13 cruise ship visits to the Odesa port were reported in 2017.
As UNIAN reported earlier, in 2017, the "Pryntsesa Dnipra" ("Princess of the Dnipro River") cruise ship visited Odesa 12 times, including 11 calls with foreign tourists. The foreign Island Sky cruise ship entered the port once last year.
A total of 3,155 cruise tourists were handled by the Odesa port in 2017, the press service said.
As reported, 106 cruise vessels entered the port in 2013, 28 ships in 2014, and 13 in 2015. Some 36 applications for cruise vessel visits had been submitted to the port administration by 2016. However, the port received a mere five cruise liners and served over 1,230 passengers in 2016.
Experts have repeatedly emphasized that the reduction in cruise ship calls to Ukrainian ports has directly stemmed from Russia's annexation of Crimea and the situation in eastern Ukraine.
In June 2016, President of the MedCruise (Mediterranean Cruise Ports Association) Kristijan Pavic (Croatia) said at a briefing in Odesa that the number of cruise ship calls in the Black Sea region might increase in the following two years. According to him, after the events in Ukraine in 2014, the number of ship calls decreased not only at the Odesa sea port, but also at the ports of the entire Black Sea region.