Francesca Antonelli, Marketing & Cruises Manager of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) and Senior Vice President of MedCruise, moderated the opening session of the Assembly
València has already exceeded the cruise sector figures for 2019 in terms of stopovers and passengers
The PAV and the Provincial Council of Valencia are preparing a training day for agents and technicians to expand the offer to tourists in the municipalities of the province
València, May 26th, 2022.- Valenciaport is taking part in the 60th edition of the General Assembly of the Mediterranean Cruise Ports Association (MedCruise), which is being held these days in the ports of Palamós and Roses on the Costa Brava. The event is attended by cruise companies, tour operators, managers of ports with cruise traffic and tourism boards from different countries, who are debating issues affecting cruise activity such as sustainability, innovation, digitisation and attracting new travellers.
Francesca Antonelli, Marketing & Cruises Manager of the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) and Senior Vice President of MedCruise, moderated, together with Lorenzo Vera, Manager of the Port of Motril and Vice President of MedCruise, the inaugural session ‘Trends in the Med’ of the Assembly. María Cano, Head of Cruises at Ports de la Generalitat; Andrea Ferla, Manager, Destination Experiences, Silversea Cruises; Sander Groothuis, VP, Port Operations & Development, Carnival UK; and Jacopo Pendola, Director, Itinerary & Revenue Planning, Costa Cruises, participated in this working table. The members of this session dealt with the challenges of the sector and the ports in the coming years, the strategies of the shipping lines to attract and regain the confidence of the cruise passengers, the special characteristics of the different regions, the ’boutique’ destinations or the novelties of the sector after the pandemic.
Francesca Antonelli highlighted the positioning of Valencia as “a medium-sized, sustainable and experience-based cruise port that attracts the attention of the family cruise sector, but also luxury and business cruises” and stressed the importance of this forum “to meet, debate and work in a coordinated way among all the agents of the sector to improve cruise activity and that of the cities where the stopovers take place”. In the session, the panellists agreed that the ports of the Mediterranean have opted before other regions for the reopening of cruises, doing a great job during the pandemic, so that the sector will be fully recovered by 2023. In this sense, Francesca Antonelli stressed that “in València we have already exceeded the number of stopovers and passengers that we had in 2019 pre-pandemic, and the outlook is very positive for 2023”. She also highlighted the sector’s strategy to ensure that cruise tourists have full confidence and security.
In this sense, the PAV, in collaboration with the Provincial Council of Valencia, has created a plan to boost the activity of cruise tourism in the inland regions and municipalities of the province that want to attract these tourists who dock throughout the year at the docks of the Port of Valencia. The aim is to train agents and technicians to expand the offer for tourists, with safe, sustainable and attractive excursions in the surroundings of the province of Valencia.
Two new members of the port community of Valencia
It should also be noted that during this Assembly, the port community operating in Valencia has extended its presence in MedCruise with the entry of the Valenciaport Foundation and the company Reciclamás as members of the entity. Luis Mas, general manager of Reciclamás explained that the firm will contribute its experience to the cruise industry in integrated waste management. For her part, Carolina Navarro, director of Port-City, Mobility and Cruises of the Valenciaport Foundation, pointed out that the aim of the institution is to promote innovation in the cruise sector in a sustainable manner.
MedCruise represents more than 145 ports from 22 countries in the Mediterranean region, including the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near Atlantic, as well as having 35 associate members, representing other associations, tourist offices and maritime and port agents.