Opened
by the President of the Regional Government of Madeira Alberto Joao
Jardim, and attended by the Regional Minister of Culture
Tourism and Transports Conceicao Almeida Estudiante, the General
Assembly and the parallel events were successfully hosted by the Port
of Madeira, with participants and guests having the opportunity to
follow the recent positive developments in the cruise ports of the
region.
Discussions
during the two days-event focused on the several challenges of cruise
port management, including accommodation of more traffic, new
itineraries, new practices, infrastructure and services demands,
programming, but also cancellations.
Highlights
of the lively two-days event included lively round-tables on how they
approach the several implications of the berth allocation schemes and
the way cruise-lines approach developments in cruise ports. Guest
speakers included, Vassilios Gazikas, Louis Cruises,Nathalie Oelmann
and Thomas Rucht, TUI, Justin Poulsen, Holland America; Eduardo
Lopez-Puertas, Pullmantur and Adam Sharp, Royal Caribbean.
The
MedCruise General Assembly offered to participating members the
opportunity to discuss two newly published reports, the MedCruise
Statistics 2013 report, that is the fourth edition of the statistics
of the association’s members, and the MedCruise Cruise Ports
Benchmarking study. The final day participants enjoyed B2B meetings
with cruise lines.
Emphasis
during round-table discussions was given on the fact that ports in
the Med have to adapt speedily, so as to respond to the deployment
trends. Market trends suggest that they did so successfully up to
now, responding to the challenge, adapting operational practices and
updating infrastructures and services required, leading MedCruise
members to conclude that the emphasis now is to act as a catalyst to
foster further cooperation among the ports of Mediterranean for the
sustainable growth of the region as a whole
Discussing
the way forward, participants decided on a number of activities for
the coming months, including a strategy for promoting MedCruise
ports-destinations in new source markets including China.
As
MedCruise President Stavros Hatzakos told reporters during the
post-event press conference:
“All
port-members participating in our association recognize the need to
collectively promote their efforts to host modern cruise. They also
acknowledge the need to provide common responses that effectively
serve the market, and search for solutions to existing problems.
When
the pluralism and the growing number of associations around the globe
produces some unease, MedCruise inclusive membership, and the active
participation of a growing number of ports in collective activities,
provides to the basis to speak as an authoritative association. Our
GA confirmed the commitment for MedCruise to be the one-stop hub
for all those wanted to learn about and engage with Med ports“.
The
General Assembly also welcomed a new member, the port of Huelva,
increasing MedCruise members to 72 members plus 30 associate members,
and well over 100 cruise ports in the
Mediterranean region, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near
Atlantic.
The
43d MedCruise General Assembly will be held in Alanya, Turkey 13-15
November 2013.
MedCruise
was set up in 1996. Today it represents well over 100 cruise ports in
the
Mediterranean region, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near Atlantic, plus 30 associate
members, representing relevant associations, tourist boards and ship/port agents.
Mediterranean region, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near Atlantic, plus 30 associate
members, representing relevant associations, tourist boards and ship/port agents.
