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Seatrade Cruise Med: cruise lines advocate better co-ordination and transparency on berthing

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The cruise lines executive panel at this morning's conference session in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (PHOTO: Frederik Erdmann)
Seatrade Cruise Med 2016 at Santa Cruz de Tenerife opened Wednesday morning with senior European cruise line executives speaking in favour of a better coordination and transparent assignment of port calls in the Med region and Southern Europe.

Claiming there are enough ports in the prospering South Europe and Med cruise range, Costa Group's ceo Michael Thamm outlined it was the local administrations' responsibility to ensure coordination of incoming berth reservations in order to avoid congestion or too many passengers visiting a place at the same time.

Thamm claimed some port administrations simply liked, 'to have as many ships as possible' rather than be transparent about the capacity utilisation already booked when another reservation comes in. Thamm suggested cruise lines should 'learn to look more long-term' and play a greater role in the destinations through strategic partnerships.

Thamm revealed the company was currently shifting its policy after it had been reluctant to enter into long-term agreements in the past. Ideally entering into long-term agreements of up to ten years with strategic ports was desirable, Thamm outlined.
 
Grupo Pullmantur's recently appointed president & ceo Richard Vogel, outlined cruise lines were well aware of the negative impact of port congestion, being often more concerned about protecting historic sites than the local authorities themselves.

Kyriakos Anastassiadis, ceo of Celestyal Cruises, also outlined the need for practical approaches to manage growing passenger volumes. 'We would love to have transparency',  Anastassiadis said with regard to port call planning.

He also suggested cruise lines should educate destinations – particularly in Greece – to make better use of traditional off-season periods and turn the Med into a genuine year-round destination. According to Thamm and other cruise line representatives, winter cruising in the Med is developing well but still remains a niche rather than a volume market.
 
In 2015, MedCruise member ports recorded 27.4m passenger movements from 13,200 calls, with Spain alone accounting for 5.9m movements. All cruise line executives gathered for the 'Way ahead for cruising in the Med' opening conference session in Santa Cruz confirmed their optimism with regard to the region's future development.

Stuart Leven, md UK & Ireland of Royal Caribbean International, said apart from the traditional European source markets, China may feed Southern Europe with significant passenger volumes in the future. He though outlined some barriers – including visa regulations – were at the moment still hampering this development.
 
Another issue debated in Santa Cruz on Wednesday was the weaker performance of the Eastern Med compared to western Mediterranean and Atlantic Islands destinations. The cruise line speakers agreed this was mainly due to the deteriorating political situation in some eastern Med countries, also infrastructure conditions were debated as a contributing factor.

Thamm stated in that context that it was difficult to develop new destinations, particularly in Greece. Citing a southern Peloponnese example, Thamm said it is 'not easy to invest in Greece these days'.
 
Other challenges cited as barriers to future grwoth included port infrastructure development, regulatory issues, local taxes, security and the need to overcome local opposition to cruising.
 

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