Seatrade Europe, the Cruise, Ferry, Rivercruise and Superyacht Convention, will be welcoming a range of hotel suppliers looking for opportunities to break into the cruise market. Where ‘traditional’ holidays are currently facing difficult times, cruise holidays are becoming more and more popular. In 2008, over 4.4m European passengers cruised, smashing all previous records, and the trend looks set to continue.

Where there are cruise ships, there are countless supply needs. Hotel, catering and entertainment companies are increasingly using Seatrade Europe to open up new business fields, or expand their services to the cruise lines.

Whether it is megaships, luxury yachts, club ships, river cruise ships or passenger ferries, shipping companies are always looking for new concepts and ideas to offer new experiences. Costa Crociere’s new ship Costa Luminosa  has a 4D cinema, skating rink, golf simulator with putting green, a Grand Prix racing car simulator and PlayStation World. Costa Pacifica, just delivered for the same brand, offers a 6, 000 sq mtr spa area, an 18sq mtr poolside screen on deck and the first floating sound studio.

Celebrity Solstice, delivered to Celebrity Cruises at the end of 2008 by Meyer Werft, sets new standards in entertainment technology with a theatre reaching from deck 3 to deck 5, space for 1,100 theatre-goers and state-of-the-art stage technology.  In the casino, players can use chip cards rather than coins at the 285 slot machines, Black Jack and roulette tables.

Entertainment is also found within the cabins, with Plasma or LCD tv screens and WLAN internet connection as standard.

Some of the latest communication and infotainment developments will be displayed at Seatrade Europe, from companies such as Bampro Electronics, Netherlands, MCG Marlink Communications, Germany, On-Waves, Iceland and Satlynx, Germany.

A cruise ship with a 2,000 passenger capacity will get through 27 tons of coffee, 955,000 tea bags, 1.5m fresh eggs, six tons of smoked salmon, 200 tons of potatoes and 142,000 toothpicks, on average, every year.  Around 1,000 bottles of wine and champagne, 3,600 bottles of beer and 3,000 cans of soft drinks will also be consumed. Culinary quality and choice are some one of the most important factors of a cruise holiday, which is why cruise lines pay so much attention to the selection, preparation, quality and presentation of food and beverage.

Exhibitors at Seatrade Europe include hotel and catering suppliers offering a range of products within this sector, including Hobart, the market leader of professional dishwashers; combi steamer specialists, Convotherm; Ankerbrau Nordlingen brewery; Carlisle Foodservice Products, Beverage technology company Grapos Postmixsirup Vertriebs, King of Cotton linen supplies, Hotel suppliers Maveko, Sola Maritime cutlery and hollowware, and WMF catering equipment.

Seatrade Europe will take place from 15–17 September 2009 at the Hamburg Messe Fairground, Hall A4. The venue is open for trade visitors on 15 and 16 September from 10am to 6pm, and on 17 September from 10am to 2pm.