Palamós port forecasts a good cruise season for 2013 with 36 visits by cruise ships, bringing 31,500 passengers
Palamós port forecasts a positive cruise season for 2013 with 36 visits by cruise ships, bringing approximately 31,500 passengers.
The number of cruise ship visits to Palamós port is set to increase by 38%, equalling the figure for the 2011 season, the busiest enjoyed by the port to date.
11 European and American cruise ships will be visiting the port for the first time.
The number of cruise ships using Palamós as a port of call is set to increase by 38%
Cruise ship activity is considered one of the sources of tourism around the world and particularly in the Mediterranean. Catalonia’s strong tourism potential attracts the world’s leading cruise ship operators and makes it popular with cruise ship tourists. In this context, Palamós forecasts a positive season for 2013 with 36 visits by cruise ships, bringing approximately 31,500 passengers, providing a real economic boost to the port, town and area as a whole.
36 visits by cruise ships are scheduled for Palamós port in 2013, an increase of 38% in respect of 2012 and equalling the figure for the 2011 season, the most successful in the port’s history to date. These very positive figures are a clear indication of the consolidation of this Costa Brava destination as a port of call for cruise ships in the western Mediterranean and, for the seventh year running, make it the second busiest cruise port in Catalonia.
Palamós expects to welcome approximately 31,500 cruise ship passengers over the course of this season. Although this represents a 6% drop in respect of the 2012 season, it is in line with the average figure for the last five seasons (33,000 passengers per season).
One of the key aspects this season is that 42% of the arrivals are luxury cruise ships. These are small ships that carry between 200 and 500 passengers. The other ships scheduled to use Palamós as a port of call carry between 1,000 and 1,800 tourists.
11 cruise ships will be visiting Palamós for the first time this year
11 cruise ships operated by European and American companies will be using Palamós as a port of call for the first time in 2013.
Five of these 11 ships belong to operators that are already habitual visitors to Palamós: Fred Olsen Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Compangnie du Ponant, Crystal Cruises and Saga Shipping. These companies are loyal customers of the Costa Brava’s ports and each season increase the number of ships in their fleet that use them as ports of call.
Meanwhile, the cruise ship operators Croiseres du France, Azamara Cruises, Phoenix Reisen, FTI Cruiseres, Shipping Partnesinc and V Ships will be visiting this Costa Brava destination for the first time over the course of the 2013 cruise ship season.
The cruise ships Boudicca, L’Austral, Horizon, Azamara Quest, Seabourn Pride, Corinthian, Amadea, FTI Berlin, Crystal Symphony, Quest For Adventure and Club Med 2 will for the first time include Palamós in their ports of call.
Promotional efforts
The institutional efforts made to promote the Costa Brava’s ports in the international forums of the cruise ship sector have consolidated both Palamós and Roses as ports of call.
For over a decade Palamós has been taking part in the annual Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention in Miami (Florida, USA), the most important event on the calendar of the international cruise ship sector. In recent years it has been joined by Roses as the second port on the Costa Brava suitable for receiving cruise ship traffic.
This year, for the first time, the ports of Palamós and Roses have been jointly promoted at the Miami convention under the brand name Costa Brava Cruise Ports. Among other promotional initiatives, meetings have been held with American cruise ship operators, shipping agencies, associations of the cruise ship sector and tour operators. The institutional efforts to promote these Costa Brava ports have met with a positive response from American cruise ship operators.
The Costa Brava Cruise Ports brand is the result of the efforts of Ports of the Catalan Government, the Costa Brava Girona Tourist Board, the town councils of Roses and Palamós and the chambers of commerce of Girona and Palamós to promote Roses and Palamós ports and their tourist destinations in a sector that forecasts growth.
1,584 cruise ship tourists in Palamós
The cruise ship Island Escape, which carries 1,584 mostly British passengers and 543 crew members, will get the 2013 cruise ship season off to a start when it docks in Palamós port on 1st April. The ship is scheduled to arrive next Monday at 8 a.m. from Toulon (France) and will be departing for Palma (Majorca) at 5 p.m.
As regards the technical features of the Island Escape, it has an overall length of 185 m, a draught of 7 m, a beam of 30.5 m and a tonnage of 40,171. The ship’s facilities include 772 cabins, swimming pools, restaurants, bars, pubs, a theatre, a casino, a discotheque, a spa, a gym, saunas and shops, among others.
28th March 2013