Bergen has announced that it will cap the number of cruise calls per day to four ships and/or 9,000 passengers, citing occasional congestion during the summer.

Said Sandra Bratland, manager of cruise development for the Port of Bergen, in a letter to cruise lines: “Bergen is Norway’s largest cruise port and has been so for years. Tourism is both important and welcome in Bergen, but on a few days every summer the city and its attractions can be crowded. The city’s popularity, its attractive location and steady growth of visitors has in recent years led to discussions as to how many visitors the city can comfortably accommodate per day.

”The municipality, in collaboration with Port of Bergen and Visit Bergen, has therefore decided to put a cap on number of cruise calls per day to 4 ships and/or 9000 passengers. The goal is to maintain Bergen as a sustainable and popular city to live in, to visit and to do business in.”

The cap will go into effect immediately for new bookings, Bratland said, while existing bookings will be honored.  The cruise schedule for 2018 already show several days with five ships in port.

For 2017, Bergen is expecting to total 325 calls and approximately 510,000 passengers before year’s end, according to Cruise Norway, compared to 490,546 passengers last year.

Three more calls are expected before the season comes to an end, with the last call being by the Magellan on Nov. 11.  Next year, the first caller is the Black Watch on Feb. 1 followed by the Saga Pearl 2 and the AIDAcara also in February.

The first four-ship day will be May 17, the Norwegian National Holiday, with the Magellan, Saga Pearl 1, MSC Preziosa and Deutschland.