Chinks of light for the Adriatic and East Med

This was the consensus of participants on the final panel at Seatrade Cruise Med 2016 in Tenerife.

However Adam Sharp, head of port operations & guest port services – Northern Europe, Middle East & Africa, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd sees the recent change in stakeholder ownership at VTP (Venice Passenger Terminal) - manager of the Venice cruise terminal - to include Royal Caribbean, MSC, Costa and Global Ports Holding as a positive move and felt that the on-going en-passe on finding a solution for large ships to get to/from VTP, ‘may now move at a greater pace that we are used to in Italy.’

Painting the current situation, Sharp said the move since 2013 to using smaller ships of less that 2,200 passengers for Venice turnarounds ‘had changed itineraries as the ships being used are gas turbines burning expensive fuel and therefore less miles are being covered.’

Sharp pointed out this in turn had benefitted some smaller Adriatic ports naming Sibenik, Albania and Kotor as examples.

Nicolai Skogland, port operations manager, Viking Cruises said the plethora of ports in the Adriatic made it very attractive for the destination-focussed line but he said issues of security and safety had led to omittingTurkish ports off the map next year and 'guest satisfaction is being negatively effected by the exclusion of Turkey on Viking itineraries.'

Talking about the changing cruise map in the East Med, Andreas Stylianopoulos, ceo, Navigator Travel & Tourist Services Ltd said despite the setbacks and the loss of a lot of traffic in the northern Aegean he saw opportunities for the islands and ports lying on the western shores of Greece to benefit for cruises to/from Adriatic. 'We must continue to remain optimistic during these difficult times for the East Med,' he added.

Bojan Babič, cruise terminal director, Port of Koper, Slovenia cited a 19.5% drop in calls in the Adriatic between 2015 and 14 with further decline expected this year but said the slowdown was enabling ports and destinations to focus on infrastructural improvements and improving shoreside products in order to be ready when Venice reopens to very large ships.

He cited new berths already operational in Split, Zadar and Sibenik and that his own port is planning to build a new cruise terminal and looking to attract homeporting ships.

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