Seatrade Cruise Med Meets in Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife will be the epicenter of international cruise traffic for the next three days as it hosts the XI edition of the Seatrade Cruise Med fair, the most important in the sector in Europe, which is being held outside the Mediterranean for the first time. The details of the meeting were announced this morning during a press conference held at the Port Authority Building, presented by the president of the Port of Tenerife, Ricardo Melchior.

Also present were the mayor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, José Manuel Bermúdez; the general director of Seatrade, Andrew Williams; the president of the European Ports Organization (ESPO), Santiago García Milá; the deputy tourism counselor of the Government of the Canary Islands, Cristóbal de la Rosa; the island councilor for the Tourism Area of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Alberto Bernabé; the president of Med Cruise, Kristijan Pavic; and the director of CLIA Spain, Alfredo Serrano.

In his speech, Ricardo Melchior highlighted the importance of cruise traffic at the international level and stated that it is among the sectors with the highest expected growth, which in the case of the Port of Tenerife will be approximately ten percent next year.

Among the scheduled conferences, Melchior emphasized one that will focus on the relationship between ports and their cities (Thursday 22, 12:00h.), indicating that “we and our ports must ensure that the understanding with the city is very positive” and achieve through different initiatives that cruise passengers feel comfortable and safe in our land.

For the mayor of the city, José Manuel Bermúdez, achieving that the capital of Tenerife stands out as a hospitable city is a priority objective in the strategy followed by the capital corporation to make Santa Cruz de Tenerife a venue for major conferences, characterizing it as the tourist capital of a tourist island.

Alberto Bernabé indicated that in cruise traffic, Tenerife is experiencing an “excellent moment” but that, to combat its frugality, our island must be “touristically excellent.” In this sense, he argued that the fair taking place these days in Tenerife will have “multiplier effects” that are not limited to the port but will also benefit the island.

A press conference was held today at the Port Authority headquarters

The new cruise terminal, about to open

In a similar line of argument, Cristóbal de la Rosa stated that the Canary Islands are experiencing spectacular growth in cruise traffic and that, with the celebration of Seatrade in Tenerife, a strategic line of work is being consolidated that will serve not only to consolidate our capabilities but also to test them with an event of such magnitude.

The general director of Seatrade confirmed the spectacular increase that the cruise sector will experience in the coming years, announcing that there are currently sixty orders for the construction of new ships, which translates into an investment of over 46 billion dollars. In this regard, Andrew Williams congratulated the Port Authority of Tenerife for its forward-looking vision in this sector of great importance for the Archipelago, indicating that in the coming days our island will be the focus of attention for the global cruise sector.

With two thousand confirmed attendees, five hundred exhibitors, professionals from the sector from seventy-three countries, including twenty-three national port authorities and a wide representation of international ones, and more than a hundred directors from the main cruise lines, during the meeting the main lines of the immediate future of a sector that, already established in our ports, offers the necessary foundations to continue growing in the coming years will be presented.

The XI Seatrade Cruise Med in Tenerife is sponsored by the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and San Cristóbal de La Laguna; the Cabildo of Tenerife through Tenerife Tourism; Tourism of the Canary Islands, City Expert, City Sightseeing, Caribbean Village, Gibraltar Tourist Board, Global Ports Holding, Hospiten, Intercruises Shoreside & Port Services, Loro Parque, Oracle Hospitality, Ports of the State, Siam Park, Tenerife Shipyards, Volcano Teide Experience, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions, and Welcome Point. Collaborating are the International Cruise Lines Association (CLIA), Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, and Medcruise.

Photos: Alberto Pérez Fernández and Ports of Tenerife