Locally, in the port of Alicante, the authorities say they are scheduled to receive15 cruise ships between now and the end of June bringing into the region over 28,000 tourists with each cruise spending an average of 10 hours in the city.
In an attempt to prevent the leakage of tourists to other neighbouring municipalities city tourist chiefs say that they will vigorously promote Alicante during berthing to make the passengers aware of everything that the city offers.
They have also recently launched a tourist train that will connect the port with the city moving passengers backwards and forwards between their cruise ship and the town. The aim is to provide easy access to the centre which it is hoped will help to retain the visitors in the area. The train will also provide a tour of the city centre.
Itineraries that will be made available to visitors have been designed with two objectives: to give easy access to trade and catering establishments in the city, as well as many local sites of interest. The tourist train will also enable the visitors to be moved around the city with the minimum possible impact on traffic in the urban centre as shown last week by Mayor Miguel Valor when he ‘test rode’ the train, together representatives of Sis Tours, one of the company’s that promotes the initiative.
This new service strengthens the position of the Port of Alicante amongst emerging competitors who are all similarly vying for trade from the new brand of ships that are now cruising around the Mediterranean. Similar offensives undertaken by other coastal municipalities in the province, such as Benidorm and Torrevieja, who are also hoping to attract the revenue from the ships, their berthing fees, and other passenger benefits, has forced Alicante to be more aggressive in the sector to try to keep ahead of the competition.
Tourists arriving on cruise ships are considered high value to local economies, the average expenditure of each of which is estimated at 75 euros per person per day. Iin addition to this must also be added the spend of crews, which can also be quite significant.
According to the new chairman of the Port Authority, Juan Ferrer, the port of Alicante plans to double the number of cruise passengers during 2015 to 88,000 passengers who will arrive aboard 49 vessels. Last year ended with 34,583 passengers landed on 29 cruises, so the figure expected this year represent a little more than double than numbers previously received.
Meanwhile the head of the Spanish Port Agency Spain Jose Llorca said that” the Spain expects the number of visiting cruise ship passengers to exceed the historic level of 8 million as the business benefits from factors such as the depreciation of the euro versus the dollar”. He further added that” the cruise sector is a pillar of his country’s tourism industry”.
The Ports of Spain this year’s edition of the cruise industry’s most important event brings together representatives of 24 port authorities and 40 firms in the tourism sector, a larger contingent than in previous years.
Apart from Spain’s cultural, historical and gastronomic treasures, the “good infrastructure and the adequate depth” of Spanish ports make the country attractive for cruise lines, he said. Spain is well established as tourism destination, “but we need to renovate constantly and to be creative” to attract more and more cruise passengers, he said.
Barcelona and the Balearic Islands still account for 64 percent of the cruise ships that dock in Spain, representing 4.9 million passengers.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/47004/
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