Local Round-Up: Record number of sailing vessels visiting Copenhagen, but steep dip in cruise ship visitors

The number of vessels docking in Copenhagen’s marinas has never been higher. There have already been 3,200 arrivals this year – a new record.

In July, several vessels had to share spaces in some of the better locations.

By & Havn could open new marina
“The new record and large number of visitors show that we have a healthy port with an attractive harbour environment that more sailors want to visit and experience it,” said Anne Skovbro, the head of By & Havn.

By & Havn has just started investigating the possibility of building a 1,600-berth marina at Prøvestenen Syd, just a few kilometres from the centre of Copenhagen.

Steep decline in cruise ship visitors
However, there has been a 30 percent fall this year in the number of cruise ship visiors: a more or less 300,000 fall in estimated numbers.

This is mainly because the Russian city of St Petersburg, which is an important destination for Baltic cruise guests, cannot be visited due to the War in Ukraine and international sanctions.

Cruise guests contribute more than 1 billion kroner to Copenhagen every year.


Copenhagen was named Europe’s best city to find bargains
Copenhagen has been named the ultimate capital for bargain hunters by the website confused.com. Based on the amount of vintage used goods for sale as well as their quality, the website gave Copenhagen a score of 8.43 out of 10 in its so-called Bargain Hunters Index. Riga and Amsterdam followed Copenhagen in the top three, with Dublin, Budapest, Oslo, Porto, London, Rome and Helsinki completing the top ten.

Nearly a thousand roadworks ongoing in the capital
There are now more than 850 locations in Copenhagen where road work is being carried out, largely due to a year-long backlog of building work made worse by rising global material prices, municipal construction caps and other factors. On the Copenhagen Municipality’s website, there is a map of the roadworks that shows who is responsible and when the work will be completed.

Registration for Copenhagen Pride Parade filling up fast
The Copenhagen Pride Parade will take place on Saturday 20 August in Frederiksberg and Copenhagen with an unprecedented number of participants: around 50,000 either walking down the street or on one of the many floats. According to Lars Henriksen, the head of Copenhagen Pride, thousands more want to take part this year following the corona restrictions that greatly reduced the numbers taking part in Pride Week in 2020 and 2021.

DSB to test new camera technology at Nordhavn Station to reduce accidents
DSB is developing new cameras to address the increase in accidents at Nordhavn and Svanemøllen railways stations. Since 2009, there have been 26 accidents and 73 so-called ‘accident precursors’, mostly involving youngsters. Many are caused by people walking on the tracks at night or standing too close to the arriving trains. DSB’s cameras detect movement in risky areas and sound alarms to help avoid an accident.

World’s largest hand-knitted flag on display near Copenhagen Harbour
This week, in honour of Copenhagen Pride, the world’s largest hand-knitted LGBT flag is adorning Nordatlantens Brygge, an organisation focused on art and culture in the North Atlantic countries, and this year it is two metres longer following the addition of black and brown stripes. The flag, now 7.2 metres long and 2 metres wide, was first displayed on the facade of the building in 2021. In recent years, the black and brown stripes have been added to the flag to represent people of colour.

New chicken wing restaurant offering 11 sauce flavours opens in Copenhagen
A brand new restaurant called Wing It opened its doors on Valby Langgade on Monday. The small restaurant serves chicken wings with pickles, coleslaw and a variety of fries, offering 11 different sauces such as peppercorn, lemon pepper and barbecue. Located at Valby Langgade 39, it is open Monday to Sunday from 11:00 to 21:00 and also offers takeaway.

Copenhagen’s Ecco shop painted red
The Ecco shop on Købmagergade, a walking street in Copenhagen that is perpendicular to Strøget, was vandalised early on Tuesday morning when its entrance was daubed with red paint. The vandalism was discovered just before 9 am. The red paint has now been removed from the entrance, but there are still traces of paint on the surface of the street. The reason for the vandalism is thought to be related to the company’s decision to continue doing business in Russia following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.