The Port of Helsinki (Finnish: Helsingin Satama, Swedish: Helsingfors Hamn) is one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe and the main port for foreign trade in Finland.
For passenger traffic, the port operates regular liner connections to destinations such as Tallinn, Stockholm, Saint Petersburg and Travemünde, serving a total volume of 11.6 million passengers in 2018. Additionally, it is a popular destination for international cruise ships with 520,000 passenger arrivals in 2018.
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth; these access the sea via rivers or canals. Because of their roles as ports of entry for immigrants as well as soldiers in wartime, many port cities have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes throughout their histories.
Ports are extremely important to the global economy; 70% of global merchandise trade by value passes through a port. For this reason, ports are also often densely populated settlements that provide the labor for processing and handling goods and related services for the ports. Today by far the greatest growth in port development is in Asia, the continent with some of the world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan. As of 2020, the busiest passenger port in Europe is the Port of Helsinki in Finland. Nevertheless, countless smaller ports do exist that may only serve their local tourism or fishing industries.