Cruise shipping

Passenger traffic from Bremerhaven – then and now

Cruise shipping is a growing business. And we began to prepare for that growth back in 2003 when we inaugurated the facilities at Columbus Quay. Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven (CCCB) is one of the most modern passenger terminals anywhere in the world. The investments made back them now enable us to handle modern cruise liners and their passengers in accordance with today’s standards. Most of the passengers departing from Bremerhaven are headed for ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic, but some are also destined for England, Iceland and Greenland.

Blick auf das Cruise Terminal. Weiße Schrift auf grauem Grund: Bremerhaven Cruise Terminal

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Room for up to four cruise liners

Although the one-kilometre long Columbus Quay in Bremerhaven has room for up to four cruise liners at once, it satisfies stringent security and quality standards – no matter how big the vessels are. Spacious check-in and waiting areas for around 4000 passengers, modern equipment for transport and baggage and comfortable boarding bridges all make the CCCB an attractive competence centre for passengers, shipowners, tour operators and ship agents.

Historic port: stepping stone to the New World

Although Bremerhaven is meanwhile home to international container business, it used to be primarily the scene of passenger traffic: since it was first founded in 1827, more than eight million people have used the port as a stepping stone to the New World. This was an attractive business opportunity for the local shipping companies and emigration to America led to an enormous upswing in the city’s development as a maritime location. When the historic Columbus Quay was inaugurated in 1927, Bremerhaven consolidated its position as a transatlantic traffic hub between Germany and America. Even Elvis Presley first set foot on German soil here as a GI.

The boom in aviation during the 1960s put an end to traditional Atlantic passenger shipping. These days, the scene is dominated by cruise liners, which in turn bring business potential with them.

Maritime tourism: museums, ships and a zoo

The German Emigration Centre, the German Shipping Museum, the climate museum Klimahaus 8° Ost, Zoo am Meer, the Museum of History, Schaufenster Fischereihafen which offers fish and more at the old fishing port – all these attractions in Bremerhaven fascinate hundreds of thousands every year. Not only holidaymakers and day trippers from Germany, but also an increasing number of cruise passengers enjoy sightseeing at the seaport. Bremerhaven’s passenger terminal plays a key role for tourism in the city.

Attractive location: prime port business for Bremen and the whole of Germany

When it comes to responsibility, we set a good example – throughout the entire country. The twin ports fen Bremen and Bremerhaven play an important for Germany as a strong economic and export nation. As one of the most high-powered logistics centres in Europe, the port group had a highly committed workforce of around 38,000 employees in Bremen alone in 2019. But it is not only in the north of Germany that the port business creates jobs: in 2019, its gateway function provided no fewer than 344,900 secure jobs at industrial enterprises throughout Germany. Because they provide access to global markets for German export/import enterprises, the ports of Bremen play a particularly important macroeconomic role, and they do so confidently and with complete commitment. In the interests of good cooperation throughout Germany.


2021: 38 arrivals


2021: 52.069 passengers


Columbus Cruise Center Bremerhaven (CCCB) is one of the world’s most modern passenger terminals.


Spacious check-in and waiting areas for around 4000 passengers


Over 8 million people since its establishment


Kreuzfahrt Bremerhaven

Although the one-kilometre long Columbus Quay in Bremerhaven has room for up to four cruise liners at once, it satisfies stringent security and quality standards – no matter how big the vessels are.