Aarhus, which in 2017 will be a European capital of culture, is making moves to capitalise on the significant increase in cruise ship tourism that the city enjoyed last year.

Almost 40,000 cruise ship tourists have landed in Denmark’s second-largest city every year since 2011, compared to just over 6,000 in 2010, and the city wants to market itself as a prominent cruise ship destination in the future.

“The competition in the cruise line market is fierce, and Aarhus is battling against Gothenburg and other Nordic cities for the attention of the cruise lines,” Peer H Kristensen, the head of Aarhus tourism flagship VisitAarhus, said in a press release. “The cruise lines plan their routes years ahead of time, so it isn’t easy to lure them to new harbours.”

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Going to Miami
Together with Aarhus Harbour, VisitAarhus has created the network ‘Cruise with Aarhus’, and Kristensen is heading to Miami in order to convince the US cruise lines to drop anchor in Aarhus.

“Over the past 18 months, we have been in dialogue with a number of large cruise lines that we have thoroughly introduced to Aarhus,” Kristensen said. “We hope that the many business meetings have paid off so that the city will see even more cruise ship guests in the coming years.”

At least 12 cruise ships are scheduled to dock in Aarhus in 2014. The schedule, complete with ship names and docking dates, can be seen here.