The City of the Hague, the Netherlands
Challenge
The challenge was to establish Scheveningen as a competitive cruise destination without costly offshore port development, focusing on optimizing existing infrastructure.
Contribution
Our contribution involved advising on transforming Scheveningen into a competitive cruise destination through optimizing existing infrastructure and successful advocacy.
Category
cruise ports, Development Strategy, homep.car., Management Services
Scheveningen has long held ambitions to become a hub for cruise operations. While the city itself is already captivating, Scheveningen can, to some extent, compete with Amsterdam as a cruise destination. It has been envisioned that tourists could reach downtown Amsterdam more quickly via Scheveningen (thanks to its direct access to the sea and well-connected rail and road networks) than when cruise ships traverse the lengthy North Sea Canal to the Amsterdam cruise terminal, which can take several hours.
Previous plans involved developing a new offshore port basin in Scheveningen (the 4th basin). However, this proved to be a costly and environmentally challenging endeavor.
In response, Stig proposed an alternative approach, advising the city to establish Scheveningen as a cruise port by optimizing its existing infrastructure and gradually reinforcing its reputation in the cruise industry. Scheveningen boasts ample quay length (340 meters) to accommodate relatively large ships, although access restrictions limit the mooring of ships up to 160 meters. While this falls into a smaller segment of the cruise shipping industry, it is an enticing one. Scheveningen has the potential to become part of Nordic routes servicing Northwest Europe, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavian countries.
The city of The Hague appointed Stig as a business developer and, through successful advocacy, welcomed its first cruise ship, the MS Berlin, with 420 passengers, to the Port of Scheveningen in 2018. This marked a significant milestone in Scheveningen’s journey toward becoming a prominent cruise destination.