La Spezia is now the growing hub of cruise tourism. As, the city is located in Liguria, Italy, most of the cruises are docked there as there is a growing opportunity of tourism.
Between January and June 2017 ,the number of seagoing holidaymakers passing through the quays at La Spezia was 195,839, or 3.4 percent more than the 189,427 recorded for the same months in 2016.
The transit passengers represented that there are the lion’s share (189,700 or + 2.5 percent compared with 185,105 in the first half of last year).
Although still low in absolute terms, the number of home porting passengers, those who begin their journey in La Spezia, thus bringing greater added value to the region, has increased significantly.
The trend of having more passengers showed a 42 percent rise, from 4,322 in the first half of 2016, to 6,139 in the first half of 2017.
And at the same time, the cruise ship passengers are on the increase, even if on a much smaller scale, as indeed they are at the Marina di Carrara port, which previously had not shown any inclination towards this tourism segment.
The number of sea vacationers are passed through the Marina di Carrara port, in Tuscany, from January to June 2017 was 5,410, or 68.5 percent more than the 3,210 in the same period in 2016. This number was made up exclusively by transit passengers, as, so far, the port has not been chosen as a home port by any ship.
The overall growth of the tourism for the Eastern Ligurian Sea Port System Authority is all the more significant than the Italian ports. Italian ports have the 8 percent drops in 2017, with an even more significant drop in ship calls.
The port of La Spezia is attracting the interest of cruise companies which is aiming to grow their list of destinations.
The aim of Eastern Ligurian Sea Port System Authority is for the port of La Spezia to be destined for the big-ship league, with Marina di Carrara taking the smaller vessels, leveraging the international appeal of destinations such as Cinque Terre, and Tuscany’s historic cities, starting with Florence.
In particular, the US-based Royal Caribbean and Italian-Swiss MSC have declared their interest in handling cruise services at the future cruise terminal that is projected by the System Authority, as per the framework of the port’s master plan.
