The cruise season in Chioggia began last June, with the arrival of the first Viking ship, a company that has chosen the Clodiense port as the perfect port of call: the Clodiense port,is the equal of the Barcelona, Civitavecchia and Olympia / Piraeus ports and has, in fact, been selected as the home port for the eastern Adriatic itinerary, by the shipping company.

The first ship, the Viking Sky, docked in Chioggia on June 17 at Isola dei Saloni with its approximately 800 passengers (mostly from the United States), most of whom visited the lagoon city.
The company continuously docked in Chioggia, for a total of about 30 dockings in the 2022 season.

The Mayor of Chioggia Mauro Armelao, the President of the PSA Northern Adriatic Sea, Fulvio Lino Di Blasio, the commander of the Chioggia Port Authority, CP Dario Riccobene, and the Viking Italia Vice President, Enrico Prunotto were present on the quayside, to welcome the first ship, together with the local representatives of the main institutions. A musical performance by the Artists of the Palio della Marciliana, the historical re-enactment event present in the city during the June weekend, was dedicated to the captain of the ship, Fredrik Nilson and his passengers.

The result achieved demonstrates the success of the effective collaboration initiated by the NASPA, with all Organisations and Institutions having provided, within their areas of expertise, an indispensable contribution aimed at relaunching the Clodiense port, a central element for the development of the territory and its economic and commercial fabric.

“We are working a lot on Chioggia, both on port planning and the enhancement of the port. - said NASPA President Fulvio Lino Di Blasio - Today's initiative, further strengthened by the contents which have emerged from the Decree-Law, allow us to take a further step forward for the creation of „Destination Chioggia " as an integral part of the planning of cruise companies . Chioggia will represent, in this temporary phase, an important solution that is added to the approaches already identified for 2022 and the coming year, in view of the new sustainable cruise model, that must be a priority objective of our action. If we add to this that the city was recently included in a list of 52 destinations worldwide suggested by the New York Times in terms of sustainable tourism, I think we could already, during this season, welcome more stopover ship on these docks in addition to today's”. The Decree-law approved in June by the Council of Ministers - containing, among other measures, new interventions for cruising in Venice and the protection of the Lagoon - goes precisely in the direction of enhancing the Clodiense port by expanding the area of intervention by Commissioner Di Blasio extending it to the port of Chioggia, also allocating resources for the efficiency of the infrastructure.

“The collaboration between all the institutional and technical bodies involved, has allowed us to achieve an exceptional result today, in consideration of the short time available” comments the commander of the Port Authority of Chioggia, Captain of Frigate Dario Riccobene. “In this sense we have worked to ensure effective safety and security frameworks. In particular, we were able to quickly build and approve the Safety Plan for this new terminal, an indispensable tool containing control and prevention measures against illegal actions during docking, passenger embarkation-disembarkation and handling of supplies and baggage. However, equally important was the fruitful collaboration with the organisations appointed to carry out the technical-nautical services guaranteeing, in complete safety, the accessibility of the ship, from entry and exit manoeuvers to and from the port, up to mooring and casting off to and from the quay, for what, I would like to emphasize, is the largest ship ever to arrive at the port of Chioggia ”.