The largest gathering of cruise ship executives in the region will travel to Barcelona, Spain from 16-18 September 2014 for the Seatrade Med Cruise Convention, where purchasers and decision-makers from the world’s leading cruise lines will be among those visiting the exhibition to meet with new and existing business partners.
With many exhibitors, including destinations, cruise associations, hospitality suppliers, tour operators and port agents, already signed up, next year’s edition looks to be the most successful yet.
These are exciting times for the Port of Barcelona, which has experienced impressive growth over the past 20 years, bringing in 25m cruise passengers to the city during this period. This further cements the economic importance of cruise to the Mediterranean and will continue the success of the previous event, which took place in Marseille in 2012.
The future of the Mediterranean as a top cruise destination continues to look very healthy, with a total of 168 cruise ships active in the region in 2012, collectively carrying a potential 3.78 million passengers, with the same success predicted for 2013 and 2014.
In terms of the wider picture, out of the top ten European destination countries in terms of passenger visits for 2012, the top three were from the Mediterranean, accounting for 55% of all European passenger visits. With high fuel costs making long repositioning voyages more expensive, deployment in the Mediterranean is predicted to surge over the next few years.
The Seatrade Med Cruise Convention incorporates high-level industry conference, a major exhibition, a training seminar for travel agents and an exceptional social programme. Seatrade Med 2014 will be the tenth edition of this major regional cruise event.
For more information about Seatrade Med, please visit cruiseshippingevents.com/med
Seatrade Med is a UBM event organised in partnership with Seatrade.
