Cruise & Ferry Review - Autumn/Winter 2022

2 0 2 MEDITERRANEAN: REPORT 2035. The roadmap sets out a series of projects that are in various stages of completion, including: shore power for river cruise and ocean cruise traffic, solar panels, electric trucks, LNG bunkering and digitalisation works. Barcelona Tourism has released a new app to help visitors check how busy sights are in real time, helping them to avoid the crowds and encouraging them to head to less densely populated attractions to alleviate overcrowding issues. There’s also an app to help visitors navigate around the 22@ district, Barcelona’s latest large-scale urban regeneration project that has transformed an old industrial neighbourhood into an innovation hub. Port of Tangier is making good progress towards its master plan development aimed at ‘uniting the port with the city’ and improving the port ’s infrastructure and facilities to stimulate passenger shipping growth. The restoration of 10 historical sites started in 2020 and the completion of the artisan village in April is the latest success story. After a seven-year absence, La Goulette Cruise Port in Tunisia, operated by Global Ports Holding, enjoyed its first three-ship week at the end of May as Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam, MSC Cruises’ MSC Opera and Saga’s Spirit of Adventure provided their passengers with an ‘authentic Tunisian experience.’ With previous safety concerns now resolved, the 655-metre pier, tourism village within the port and its proximity to Tunis now make the destination an attractive cruise proposition, which has resulted in 39 scheduled calls in 2022. Valletta Cruise Port in Malta enjoyed a memorable day on 17 May when it hosted the naming ceremony for Viking > > Michele Bosco, shore excursions in the Mediterranean, North Africa and Black Sea at Holland America Group, summed the topic up neatly in asserting that we all have a responsibility to strive to be “more sustainable tomorrow than we are today. Three years ago, we started using data scientists and machine learning, the next step is to integrate our data with ports and destinations. If we know what our customers want to do, we can develop port rankings.” Davide Truscello, director of pricing, itinerary and revenue planning at Costa Cruises, welcomed the inclusion of digitisation, digitalisation and data on the agenda. “It’s a step change for the future in how we use data to improve the customer experience.” According to Yusuf Amro, founder of Yamro.Limited, the big 3D benefits are “educated decision-making and the ability to understand and predict new opportunities as well as to identify and improve current processes.” Amro concluded with a neat recommendation for those planning to rethink their processes: “In modern business we have to learn, unlearn and then relearn. Experience sometimes stops innovation.” The final panel session reviewed ‘The New Normal Cruising’ with panellists referencing both challenges and opportunities. Hugues Lamy, director of port operations at Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, celebrated the return of cruising, saying: “The cruise industry has shown

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