By
Cherie Rowlands |
With more than 72 members representing more than 100 ports across the Mediterranean and Black Sea region, along with 30 associate members, and new ports continuing to sign up, what is the Medcruise association delivering to its destination partners and the cruise brands they hope to attract to their ports?
Medcruise president Stavros Hatzakos says: “What we are trying to do is communicate to our members the best port practices and the best ways for them to service cruise lines visiting their ports. That means adding quality and to deliver that, we are gathering information not only on our ports, but also on what cruise lines are asking of us. We want to create a level of service that is the Medcruise standard, but we first need to determine, through conversations with the lines, what that should be. Often ports and cruise brands have a completely different approach on critical issues, such as berth allocation, pricing of services, passenger terminals and the way passengers move around the port. Sometimes ports are not certain of the needs of cruise lines or their own cities, so we are offering them alternative ways of finding solutions.
“What I am keen to do – but we haven’t discussed this yet – is to think about ways of improving service levels, not necessarily only from the public sector, but also from private investment. It is important for our members to know the sources of funding that exist in our region and that there are a variety of ways to increase and improve service.”
As a result of feedback from cruise brands wanting more information on the ports they visit, Medcruise now has a new-look website. Making port details available online – including a toolkit for itinerary planners – is one step towards acting on cruise brand requests. Further opportunities to hear what the lines are looking for arise when the association invites cruise company representatives to speak at its assemblies.
Hatzakos says: “At our General Assembly, the cruise lines can find the ports and our ports can find them and discuss what is going on in their destinations and find ways of meeting brands’ expectations. We now provide port statistics from the year just ended, because until now these were a year or two old and not available at the beginning of the cruise season when they were needed. This also helps the ports to sell the cruise lines on their destinations.” The association is in the process of conducting studies on the status of the Mediterranean cruise industry too – Hatzakos says that, although studies of this nature are currently available for Europe from ESPO, they lack a specific focus on the Mediterranean.
In the meantime, the biggest challenge for Medcruise members is to stay the course, because this is what is needed to take Mediterranean to the top in world cruising, Hatzakos says. “For many years the Caribbean was the top spot for cruising, but now we are growing and we think we can overtake it. That is our target. After all, covering three continents, steeped in the history of a mix of civilisations, each with their different ways of life, culture and traditions, the Mediterranean and Black Sea comprise an unbeatable region for both cruise lines and passengers to visit.”