Cruise ship season begins at Svalbard

The Norwegian Star, the first ship carrying more than 2,000 passengers to call at Svalbard this summer, docked in Longyearbyen on Saturday. The people who went ashore outnumbered the residents in the town centre. Shops, cafes, art galleries and the museum all received many visitors. A second ship of that size, the Aidaluna, is due on Monday. Passengers also posed for photos beside the statue of a coal miner. Most of them did not know about the turning point the town is passing through, the Barents Observer reported.

A recently published study for Visit Svalbard (the destination company) and Svalbard Cruise Forum puts the revenue that cruise tourism brought to Longyearbyen in 2024 at NOK 361 million (€31 million). That equals 9% of all economic activity at Svalbard. Passengers on expedition cruises spent NOK 2,227 each on average, against NOK 1,886 for passengers on conventional cruises.

According to an overview from Visit Svalbard, 457 port calls are announced for Longyearbyen between now and the final arrival on 14 October. Most of the vessels are smaller expedition ships. They start and end their voyages in the town during the summer. Tourism is the town's main source of income now that coal mining is closing later in June, the Barents Observer reported.

The airport is the main attraction for operators, the Barents Observer reported. Longyearbyen is the only place in the high Arctic where passengers can join or leave a ship via scheduled airliners or charter flights. This spares expedition ships several days at sea compared with a departure from mainland Europe. Expedition vessels carry their own zodiacs, need no shore infrastructure, and can put passengers ashore at wilderness sites that larger ships cannot reach. A warming Arctic with less sea ice opens routes to remote areas, especially north of the island of Spitsbergen and around the Nordaustlandet islands, the Barents Observer added. Two-week voyages are sold on that basis, it said.

Norwegian authorities brought in stricter environmental rules for tourism on the archipelago last year. Under them, tourists have fewer options for where and how they can land ashore.