By
Rebecca Gibson |
Cruise executives and port officials shared positive predictions about the future growth of the cruise industry in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas at the first day of Seatrade Cruise Med in Lisbon, Portugal on 19 September.
Hosted by the Port of Lisbon Authority and supported by MedCruise and Cruise Lines International Association, the event will offer a showcase exhibition, conference and a full networking programme and will conclude on 20 September. In total, more than 2,700 delegates from 105 countries are expected to attend over the two days.
Seatrade Med kicked off with a welcome speech from Ana Paula Vitorino, Portugal’s Minister of the Sea, who highlighted the importance of all government organisations, public entities and private stakeholders to work together to improve the region’s cruise market. Other speakers who gave welcome addresses included Duarte Codeiro, vice president of the Municipality of Lisbon, and Ana Mendes Godhino, Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism.
The opening keynote came from Airam Diaz Pastor, president of MedCruise and commercial director of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, who spoke about future port infrastructure investments and new ship capacity coming to the region.
Other highlights of the day include the State of the Industry address, which included a discussion between MedCruise’s Pastor; David Dingle, Carnival UK's chairman; Stuart Leven, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.'s vice president of EMEA; Richard Vogel, president and CEO of Pullmantur; Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises; and Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises.
Speaking about the future of the European cruise industry, Dingle predicted that if occupancy levels remain broadly the same as in 2017 when 26.7 million cruises were sold, then more than 28 million cruises are likely to be sold in 2018.
“European source market growth has continued steadily and if anything has been capacity-constrained due to the redeployment of some ships to Asia and other places,” he said. “In 2017, 26% of global cruise sales were in Europe, but we comfortably predict that this will rise to 28% in 2018 and 2019 as more capacity begins to arrive.”
Dingle also touched on the economic impact cruising has had on Europe. In 2017, it contributed almost €48 billion (US$56 billion), which was a 16.9% increase since 2015.
“That’s a phenomenal rise, and it comes from source market growth, more cruise operating activities in Europe and more cruise ship building, which has grown by more than 22% compared with 2015 as the order book has increased to record levels, a remarkable 66 new ships by 2021 worth almost €30 billion,” said Dingle. “With seven million cruise sales in 2017, 8% more than 2015, Europe is the world’s second biggest source market. Over 80% of those European sales were for cruises in Europe, and adding to these the numbers of Americans, Asians and Australians coming to Europe to cruise, 6.5 million people took a cruise here last year, 6% more than in 2015.”