By
Rebecca Gibson |
Italy’s 31 cruise ports are expected to handle around 10.9 million passenger embarkations, disembarkations and transits, as well as 4,700 cruise calls in 2015, according to a Risposte Turismo report.
Risposte Turismo’s annual Italian Cruise Watch report was presented by the company’s president Francesco di Cesare at the fourth Italian Cruise Day forum, which took place at the Naples Maritime Station on 24 October.
The report indicated that by the end of 2014, Italy’s 31 cruise ports will have handled 4,676 cruise calls, an 8.7% decrease from 2013. This year, the busiest ports were Venice and Civitavecchia, which were used for stopovers by 80% of the cruise operators that called in Italy. These included Costa Cruises, which called at 17 ports; Variety Cruises, which visited 16 ports; Holland America Line, Phonenix Reisen, Sea Cloud Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises, which all stopped over at 15 ports each.
Next year, cruise traffic is predicted to rise by 6.37%, while Civitavecchia, Venice and Naples are likely to remain the busiest Italian ports, expecting to handle 2,339,780 passenger movements, 1,570,000 passenger movements and 1,187,500 passenger movements respectively.
The Italian Cruise Watch 2014 report also highlighted that the country is expected to have 48 cruise terminals in 2015, an increase from 46 this year and 41 in 2013. In addition, there will be a 5% increase in the number of ports that can accommodate ships measuring more than 350 metres in length, which will enable the country to handle the larger new-generation ships.
Meanwhile, Italian travel agents expect the fly&cruise market to increase its share in the overall cruise market to 20.7% in 2015, marking a rise from 17.4% in 2013 and 18.7% this year.