Destination Gotland

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HSC Gotlandia at Fårösund, northern Gotland, Sweden.
HSC Gotlandia at Fårösund, northern Gotland, Sweden.

Destination Gotland is a Swedish ferry-line that run state-subsidiarised domestic ferries from Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn to Visby on the island of Gotland. It is a wholly owned daughter company of Rederi AB Gotland. In the summer of 2007 Destination Gotland will also run a service between the island of Gotland and the island of Öland. The fleet consists of four high-speed Ro-Pax ferries. The transport volumes to the island of Gotland is more than 1.4 million passengers and 640,000 lane meters of freight per year. During the high season the frequency is up to 16 departures per day to between the mainland of Sweden and the island of Gotland.

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[edit] History

Destination Gotland was founded in 1998 and has since that served the routes Visby to Nynäshamn and Oskarshamn. Originally 75% of the company was owned by Rederi Ab Gotland and 25% by Silja Line. In January 1999 Silja Line sold its share in the company to Rederi Ab Gotland, who from then has been the sole owner of the company. At the same time Destination Gotland changed from using Silja Lines reservations system to the BOOKIT reservations system, which is now used for all their ferry reservations and ticketing [1].

[edit] Economics

There where a few scandals involving this ferry-line where leading individuals where accused of being bribed by the engine and other equipment manufacturers of the ferries, one individual committed suicide while in custody in Visby during the court hearing. All living accused individuals have been cleared from the accusations in legal instances that would lead to imprisonment, fines where given. The traffic to the Island of Gotland is subsided by the Swedish authorities. During a review of the agreement between the Swedish authority Rikstrafiken and the ferry company during 2006 the late CEO was arrested for his allegedly having misused the subsidies. The Swedish authorities had later to back from these allegations and Destination Gotland was cleared in all legal instances from having broken the agreement. The previous concession for the traffic to Gotland ends in December 2008 and a new tender for the period of 2009-2014 was given to them.

[edit] Fleet

  • M/S Visby
  • M/S Gotland
  • HSC Gotlandia
  • HSC Gotlandia II

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dawson, Philip, Please be Seated: The airline seat's ascendency over the traditional ship's berth, "ShipPax GUIDE 04", 96-102, ISSN 0282-8898
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