The Vladivostok Sea Terminal has announced the start of its biggest cruise season ever with the March 20 call of Phoenix Reisen’s Albatros. She is the first 16 vessels slated to call throughout the year, which will also see Vladivostok serving as an embarkation port.

The 650 mostly German passengers aboard the Albatros were greeted with a traditional welcome ceremony, organized by the cruise terminal operator with the support of Primorsky Territory Government.

Cruise passengers traffic for the year is expected to double from last year to about 30,000 passengers. Combined with ferry passenger traffic, the overall passenger volume will reach 100,000 passengers for 2019.

Among the notable events will be maiden calls by the Spectrum and Quantum of the Seas in September. Their calls have been made possible by dredging, the Sea Terminal stated.

Also calling this year will be the Costa neoRomantica and Serena, the Westerdam and Maasdam and the Diamond Princess.

April 22 will see a double call by the Westerdam and the neoRomantica.

Vladivostok will also be restoring its status as turnaround port. Local residents and tourists will be able to book cruises and sail from Vladivostok. The Costa NeoRomantica will sail from Vladivostok on May 30, calling at Korean and Japanese ports. And the Spectrum of the Seas will sail on Sept. 9 to Shanghai, Maizuru and Fukuoka.

In a prepared statement the Sea Terminal said that Vladivostok has strong sourcing potential with a population of 24.4 million in the Siberian and Far Eastern Federal districts of Russia. There are also some 70 million people in the Northeastern provinces of China (Heilongjiang and Jilin), which do not have sea ports.

The company said that Vladivostok can also support international sourcing with air/sea programs.

To support and further develop homeporting operations the Vladivostok Sea Terminal said it is actively working with the neighboring Pacific Russia regions (Sakhalin and Kamchatka) and nearby ports in South Korea and Japan to develop new itineraries for Asian and international cruise markets.