Stand on Mount Fløyen above the old city of Bergen and, during the summer months, your view will take in a flotilla of cruise liners moored in the harbour below. Bergen, the largest settlement on Norway’s deeply indented western coastline, is a popular stopover for cruise passengers from the UK, Germany and the US en route to the Norwegian fjords and the Baltic.

The cruise liners that criss-cross the North Sea are the modern counterpart of the trading vessels that traditionally provided commercial links between the countries that ring the water. They knit together tourist economies that have otherwise developed independently and in fierce competition with each other.

It is only in recent years that the European Union has provided funds to encourage local government bodies in member states around the North Sea (plus Norway) to work together to develop transational facilities for tourism.

Walking and cycling trails that encircle the North Sea were a concrete outcome of the EU’s Interreg IIIB North Sea Programme but EU officials hope more initiatives will emerge this month, when the first projects in the follow-up programme get under way.

Although global warming threatens to extend Mediterranean conditions to northern Europe in the decades ahead, for the foreseeable future tourism managers will continue to work on the basis that the North Sea holiday experience will be bracing rather than sun-drenched.

Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast, lays claim to being the oldest resort in Britain, attracting visitors to its mineral springs since the early 1600s, though it was the Victorians who dubbed it “the Queen of Watering Places”. Since the emergence of cheap Mediterranean package holidays in the 1960s, tourism authorities and providers have had to develop attractions that do not necessarily depend on warm and sunny weather.

“The North Sea is not a first-time cruise,” says Nigel Lingard, marketing director of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines. “People need to get used to cruising and do the other, warmer destinations first. The Scandinavian countries are a second holiday destination or for later in life when you are fed up with getting sunburnt.”

The most popular destination for cruise passengers is St Petersburg on the Baltic but one-week tours of the Norwegian fjords and two-week tours that take in Norway’s North Cape and Spitzbergen are also in demand. Some cruises take in Leith in Scotland, for Edinburgh and the Scottish distilleries, and Lerwick in the Shetlands. German liners operating from Hamburg and American vessels sailing from Harwich also offer round-UK tours.

Some tours are designed to take in the cultural aspects of the countries visited. The home of Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg at Troldhaugen on the outskirts of Bergen is convenient for musical cruises while Fred Olsen is to launch a programme combining cruising with hiking in 2008.

Total numbers of cruise passengers visiting Norway from UK ports rose to 59,000 in 2006 from 27,000 in 2000, according to the Passenger Shipping Association, representing the cruise industry.

The countries ringing the North Sea have never depended on the traditional package holiday visitor. They have offered a more varied range of treats for domestic and foreign visitors from the canals and art galleries of Amsterdam, through Denmark’s Legoland theme park, to the sandy beaches of northern Germany. City breaks have been a growth area in recent years and the North Sea region has benefited from the many historic cities within its boundaries.

Tourists do not always travel very far in the North Sea region, and Germans make up a large part of visitor numbers to Denmark and the Netherlands.

But a rise in domestic – stay-at-home – tourism was the main driver behind the increase in overall visitors to the Nordic countries, according to the latest annual survey carried out for VisitDenmark, the Danish tourism authority. The number of nights spent by foreign visitors in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland rose only 2 per cent between 2000 and 2006, compared with a 23 per cent rise in north-west Europe.

The rapid expansion of low-cost airlines has nevertheless helped promote tourism, with Torp, 100km south of Oslo and Haugesund, a similar distance south of Bergen served by Ryanair. More direct flights from regional UK airports including BMI from Leeds Bradford and Sterling Airlines from East Midlands are also helping boost visitor numbers to Denmark, says Henrik Kahn, VisitDenmark director in the UK and Ireland.

Scotland has been boosting its direct air links with other countries in Europe to increase the appeal of events such as the Edinburgh Festival and golf tournaments. The north-east of England meanwhile promotes its arts facilities, heritage sites such as Hadrian’s Wall and its dramatic countryside when selling itself to visitors.

Increasing visitor numbers depends very much on local initiatives but the EU is attempting to play a co-ordinating role in the North Sea region.

“Many of these areas are dependent on agriculture or the primary sector so it is really important to create other sources of income to generate growth,” says Christian Byrith, acting head of secretariat for the current North Sea programme.

“The walking and cycle trails were good examples of projects with a transnational element. We would like more of the same but even better.”