By
Rebecca Gibson |
Spain’s Port of Huelva was welcomed as a member of MedCruise, the association representing cruise ports in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas, at its 42nd General Assembly in Madeira, Portugal from 13-14 June.
The new port increases the number of MedCruise members to 72, plus 30 associate members, and more than 100 cruise ports in the Mediterranean region, the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near Atlantic.
Hosted at the Port of Madeira, the General Assembly was opened by the president of Madeira’s regional government Alberto Joao Jardim, and attended Conceicao Almeida Estudiante, the regional minister of culture, tourism and transports. Guest speakers included Louis Cruises’ Vassilios Gazikas, TUI’s Nathalie Oelmann and Thomas Rucht, Holland America’s Justin Poulsen, Pullmantur’s Eduardo Lopez-Puertas and Adam Sharp from Royal Caribbean.
The two-day conference included discussions on cruise port management issues, including how to increase and accommodate additional traffic, implementing new itineraries, practices, infrastructure and services demands.
Roundtable discussions focused on the implications of berth allocation schemes and the way cruise lines approach developments in cruise ports, enabling attendees to identify strategies to ensure the region’s sustainable growth.
According to current statistics, the region’s cruise ports are successfully adapting to changing deployment trends by adapting operational practices and updating infrastructures and services. This success will be leveraged to promote MedCruise ports and destinations in new source markets including China.
MedCruise members also discussed the recently published MedCruise Statistics 2013 report and the MedCruise Cruise Ports Benchmarking study, before participating in B2B meetings with cruise lines.
“All port members participating in our association recognise the need to collectively promote their efforts to host modern cruise,” said MedCruise president Stavros Hatzakos. “They also acknowledge the need to provide common responses that effectively serve the market, and search for solutions to existing problems.”
He added: “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 43rd MedCruise General Assembly will be held in Alanya, Turkey, in November 2013.