The port of Valencia expects to close 2019 with more than 435,000 passengers and 199 stopovers.
Valencia is becoming a reference port for shipping companies in the premium and luxury segments.
València, April 2nd, 2019.- Valenciaport will once again be present at the SEATRADE CRUISE GLOBAL fair, the main cruise event in the world, which opens this year in Miami (Florida) on April 8th. The aim of the PAV’s presence in this event is to value Valencia’s port facilities and tourism offer to professionals from the sector around the world. Mar Chao, commercial and business development director of the APV; and Francesca Antonelli, marketing director, present at the fair, will maintain a broad agenda of meetings with shipping managers from around the world in an institutional stand.
Valenciaport: a port in constant growth in cruise ship traffic
In recent years the port of Valencia has experienced a slow and sustainable growth in terms of cruises, a trend that will be maintained during 2019 with forecasts for the end of the year of 435,000 passengers and 199 stopovers compared to 421,518 cruise passengers and 196 stopovers. 2018. Considered as a medium port in the sector, the Port of Valencia works with up to 30 different companies and has the commitment of companies such as MSC Cruises, which in recent years has consolidated the port of Valencia as a base port for some of its flagships such as the MSC Divina and the MSC Meraviglia. For its part, the company Costa Cruises also plans to offer the port of Valencia as a port bases for its passengers, which will mean the increase of both scales and passengers in the total cruise ship traffic of the port of Valencia at the end of the year
Innovation in the touristic offer
The port of Valencia has been consolidated in recent years as a destination for specialized shipping companies both in family public-known as contemporary-as well as in those aimed at a premium (luxury) or even expedition public. This trend is explained by the diversity and quality of the offer that has added to the visits by the City of Arts and Sciences or the old town of the city other alternatives focused on the artistic and cultural heritage of Valencia and that include views of Museums such as the Silk or Modern Art, bicycle routes through the Valencian orchard or an offer of “experiences” that go through cooking paellas, painting ceramics or making horchata.
Thus, since 2017, the operators incorporated new routes 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 the 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 recently restored Silk Museum and the Velluters neighborhood in which the fabrics were made, even today used at parties popular as the Fallas. Another of the excursions recently offered is dedicated to the josephine festivities in order that the visitor can enter the main nerve centers of these festivals declared World Heritage in 2017.