OREANDA-NEWS. May 30, 2012. In 2012, Port of Riga expects arrivals of 92 cruise ships, Mixnews.lv. reports. The first of them has called at the port on April 30.

In March, the port planned to handle 91 ships and 81,000 passengers (+27.8%). The biggest ship, Costa Pacifica with 3,800 tourists on board, will call at the port on August 17.

In 2011, Riga saw 69 cruise ships arrivals, passenger traffic grew to 63,500 people. 2003 was the record year with 121 arrivals and 85,400 passengers.

Latvia-based Free Port of Riga lies on both banks of the River Daugava (Western Dvina), The port encompasses 6.348 hectares, including 13,818-meter waterfront with berths max depths of 16 meters (ship draft - 12.2 m). Transit cargoes account for 80 percent of overall freight traffic moved to / from the CIS countries. In 2011, cargo throughput at the Port of Riga rose 11.8 percent year-over-year to 34.07 million tons.