Impact of COVID-19 on the service of passenger vessels at the ports of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin, Świnoujście

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic affected all industries, causing multimillion losses and costs. It also caused damage to physical health and mental difficulties. Marine transport was not spread either, the closure of ports, ship quarantines and inability to swap the crew of vessels are just a few of the problems faced by the entire maritime industry. Unlike other industry sectors, it has not been frozen, because maritime transport is one of the most important in the world and the world economy depends on its smooth functioning. All restrictions also affect the maritime traffic and passenger service on vessels on Polish ports. The purpose of this article is to compare the number od passengers who used the services of passenger vessels which shuttle from tree Polish ports: Port of Gdańsk, Port of Gdynia, Port of Szczecin‐Świnoujście, over the last 10 years. The data and information were obtained from the Główny Urząd Statystyczny (GUS). The first comparison concerns the years before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic 2012–2019 and the second considers the years 2020–2021 when the pandemic reaches its peak. The impact of COVID‐19 on the numbers of passengers serviced by above mentioned ports was also analyzed.