The port of Valencia will work in 2018 with 30 different shipping companies.
Valenciaport will be one more year present at the SEATRADE CRUISE GLOBAL fair, the main cruise event in the world, which will open its doors on March the 5th in Fort Lauderdale (Florida). The presence of the Port Authority of Valencia and Turismo Valencia, is part of the institutional stand of “Ports of Spain”, and aims to value the port facilities and the tourist offer of the city to professionals of the sector of all the world.
New arrangement of the port space dedicated to the passenger
The Port Authority of Valencia has closed a work agenda during the event in order to present, to current and future customers, the situation generated by the new rearrangement of the port space and strategic planning that is being carried out in these months in the Northern Extension on one side and in the area located at the North entrance of the Port. In fact, the location of the new cruise terminal, whose specifications were expected to be published at the end of 2017, is being designed in the area closest to the northern entrance of the port, thus allowing for the approximation of departures and entry to the city, which will be, therefore, more comfortable and encouraging for visitors.
At present and until the construction of the new facilities, the port of Valencia has two docks that allow berthing of vessels of up to 300 meters in length and two other docking alignments located in the northern extension of 430 and 440 meters in length respectively and a draft of 16 meters. The port attends to all types of cruises of practically all the companies that port call in the Mediterranean like ships of last generation that offer familiar cruises and whose berthing is operated in the North extension or smaller ships for a select public that are operated in the docks of the current passenger terminal located at the entrance of the port.
Cruise forecasts
The figures that will be presented to current and potential clients are encouraging: Valenciaport remains constant in the growth of the cruise passengers observed in recent years. One more year, the forecasts of Valenciaport for the year 2018 are optimistic. The port of Valencia has scheduled 196 port calls in this year and expects to exceed 435,000 passengers, a figure that will represent an increase of more than 3% compared to the 1.6% registered in the previous year. A relevant fact to be taken into consideration in 2018 is that MSC Cruises will use Valencia as a base port for two of its vessels, the MSC Divina, which will cover the campaign from March to September, and one of the company’s flagships, the MSC Meraviglia, who will make port calls during the months of October and November. In addition, the port of Valencia works with around 30 different shipping companies, including companies such as Costa Cruises, Royal Caribbean, Aida Cruises, TUI Group, Azamara Cruises or Viking Cruises, among others.
Touristic offer
The offer of excursions offered to the cruise passenger of Valencia is wide, varied, comfortable and, above all, safe, a fact that make the institutions special attention from arrival in port. On the one hand, Valencia offers a large historic center that can be visited comfortably by walking or cycling, as the city is dedicating more spaces reserved for cyclists and pedestrians whose points of interest lack congestion and offer a genuinely Mediterranean experience. In 2017, new routes were added to the traditional routes through the Albufera, the historic center or the City of Arts and Sciences. These include the Religious Art Route, which includes a stop at the Cathedral with an obligatory visit to the Holy Chalice and other churches such as the recently restored San Nicolás, rightly called the Spanish Sistine Chapel; the Silk Road that allows to know the historical legacy of this industry in Valencia with the visits to the Lonja de la Seda, the newly restored Silk Museum and the Velluters neighborhood in which the fabrics were made, even today used at Fallas. Another of the excursions recently offered is dedicated to the Josephine festivities in order for the visitor to enter the main nerve centers of these festivals declared World Heritage in 2017.