Celestyal Cruises' shorex and port operations manager, Marios Polydorou, revealed the new deployment during a Friday morning panel discussion at Seatrade Cruise Med looking at the future potential for the Atlantic Corridor.
The region, extending from the Azores and Madeira down to Cape Verde Islands and including Portugal, Western Spain, the Gibraltar Strait range, the Canaries as well as West Africa is set to witness significantly more traffic than the 4.7m passengers and 2,800 calls recorded in 2015.
In another development, the new Lisbon terminal, due for inauguration in early 2017, will provide more opportunities for homeporting and itineraries calling the islands, Portos Dos Acores' cruise business manager André Velho Cabral told conference delegates.
Celestyal is going to operate three, four and seven day itineraries calling at Motril, Gibraltar, Tangier, Cadiz and Portimao on the Algarve coast, Polydorou said.
He cited the region's historic richness and specific, authentic excursion products as key reasons for Celestyal to expand to the Atlantic Corridor.
Polydorou especially highlighted the exemplary co-operative efforts of 'the town halls, tourist boards, agents and ports to attract new cruise clients.'
However, many cruise line executives still regard the Atlantic Corridor purely as a winter destination he added and suggest the ports needs to increasingly ramp up their communication to show it's potential as a year-round product.
Velho Cabral confirmed the summer season continued to be the region's low season at the moment.
He specified opportunities this brought along for cruise lines, such as more availability of berth space in ports, less capacity use at tourist hotspots as well as chances to benefit from seasonal incentives offered by some ports.
AIDA Cruises' senior manager destination development, Sandra Neffgen, said the region was 'one of the best, if not the best, in terms of guests satisfaction'.
AIDA has been a key customer of the Canary Islands and Madeira but is expanding to the Azores Islands too.
Confirming AIDA 'loves the region', Neffgen outlined the climate, safety and the availability of enough German-speaking tour guides as core advantages. She said the popularity of the region wasa deciding factor in basing its flagship AIDAprima in the Canaries from October 2017.
Airam Díaz, Port of Tenerife's commercial director, urged cooperation with West African ports should be stepped up in order to add new destinations to the range.
He also told delegates that Tenerife has entered into an agreement with the Port of Malaga in order to stimulate cruising from Malaga to the Canary Islands.
His suggestion was seconded by Luis De Carvalho, ceo of Bermello, Ajamil & Partners Europe, the moderator of the session. De Carvalho confirmed West African ports have been dwarfed by the Ebola crisis and political changes, but said they should be brought back onto the cruise map through marketing co-operation and education of local people involved with the cruise business.
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