He was addressing delegates at the International Cruise Summit in Madrid. 'We require stability in North Africa and the East Med in the next 18 months to reignite people's desire to visit us,' he commented, suggesting that passengers from far away, 'if they are unable to come to Eastern Med they are unlikely to be coming to Europe at all, evidenced by a significant reduction in calls to the eastern Med in 2017.
'On a panel discussing challenges ahead and speaking from a port's perspective John Portelli, gm, Roma Cruise Terminal referenced the level of mistrust between ports and local authorities while Ian McQuade, gm Portland Harbour Authority, spoke of congestion issues in marquee ports providing opportunities for smaller ports to pick up business.
For Chris Coates, commercial director of Cruise & Maritime Voyages the challenge for his company is the speed in which it has grown in the last six years. 'We stared carrying 30,000 passengers a year and that figure has risen to 120,000 annually, including 100,000 from the UK many of them repeaters so we have to constantly look for new destinations.'
Anastassiadis, soon to take up the chair of CLIA Europe, believes it, 'inconceivable to grow the industry without working with the ports', while Richard Vogel, ceo of Pullmantur urged the tourism sector to play a bigger role in the future development of cruise destinations.
Switching to opportunities, China and Cuba got an airing. 'China provides a huge opportunity for the industry as a whole and also great for Europe too as eventually the Chinese will sail on ships in Europe and they are high spenders ', said Massimo Brancaleoni, svp global sales for Costa Crociere.
On a later panel looking at itineraries, Jacqui Nobile port and shorex ops manager for Thomson Cruises singled out berth and destination congestion as her biggest issues while Mike Pawlus spoke of post Brexit and predicted that with the UK leaving the EU, itineraries in Europe will change.
Identifying the amount of expanded tonnage announced for ex-UK cruising next year (Norwegian Cruise Lines, Thomson, Princess, MSC and CMV) and beyond (a new ship for P&O Cruises in 2020 half the size again of Britannia), moderator David Selby, md Travelyields Consulting suggested we could see an explosion of the UK source market after a few years of stable growth.
An interesting debate on the future of land programs saw Fred Olsen's Claire Ward in her new position of director of product and customer service identify the issues concerning the rise in independents versus cruise line shorex sales.
In looking into what causes guests to stop booking cruise line tours she singled out poor guides, incorrect descriptions of what is being offered and operations that go wrong.
'Independents are here to stay and if anything I think they will increase and I want them to also have a good time when we are in port because if we get bad feedback generally from a poor call the port may lose that call so its up to the DMCs, the cruise lines and local tourism to ensure we bring value to every visitor.'
Shirley Henderson, shorex manager Carnival UK also noted a decline in onboard shorex sales. 'Brits are very independent and are happy to go off in search of an adventure.' She said the company is focussing on making better use of technology to encourage people who are on a cruise line tour to share the good experience in real time with friends and family and get them talking about the quality and value to try and convert the non-believers.
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