MedCruise joins the inaugural meeting of the “Pan-European Dialogue between cruise operators, ports and coastal tourism stakeholders” sending a simple message: “Stakeholders need to work together” in order to enjoy the benefits and growth of cruising.
The conference concludes on Friday, with a special session “Challenges and Opportunities for Cruise Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea” including an intervention by Thanos Pallis, MedCruise Secretary General, to reveal the preliminary results from the most recent work of the Association on the state of cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas.
Carla Salvadó concluded pointing that “MedCruise since October 2013, together with CLIA Europe, had detailed very specific proposals that would benefit cruising throughout Europe. Proposals that we would like to believe produced the seeds for today’s initiative”.
Stavros Hatzakos, MedCruise Honorary President and Chairman of the European Network for Cruise and Ferry ports (NCFP), set within the European Seaport Organisation (ESPO), urged “the need for constructive debate with the associations representing cruise lines and other stakeholders involved in the cruise or ferry sector and investigate potential collaborative synergies” and underlined that “the industry has taken initiatives; formal and informal networking is advancing”.
Earlier, ESPO Chairman, Santiago Garcia-Milà outlined a set of key challenges for European Cruise Ports that port authorities will seek to develop into a set of good practices for the sector.
The six key challenges identified by the cruise port authorities working within the Network for Cruise and Ferry Ports are: competition and cooperation between cruise ports, relations with the city of arrival and the local authorities, infrastructure in and around the port, relations with the cruise lines, freight versus cruise relationship within the port and finally security, customs and border control issues. “Port authorities in EU will sit together in working groups. But we will also open the dialogue with all other stakeholders. We will need the support and input of everyone active in the sector” was his concluding remark.
Τhe event was opened by DG MARE Commissioner Karmenu Vella who highlighted the importance of sustainable cruise tourism for Europe and that “The time has come to go the extra mile, to make a collective effort. We all have a vested interest in working towards a bigger, a more sustainable, a more competitive and a more inclusive cruise tourism for Europe”.
The conference concludes on Friday, with a special session “Challenges and Opportunities for Cruise Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea” including an intervention by Thanos Pallis, MedCruise Secretary General, to reveal the preliminary results from the most recent work of the Association on the state of cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas.
For more information about MedCruise participation, you might contact:
Thanos Pallis, MedCruise Secretary General, thanos.pallis@medcruise.com and/or
Aimilia Papachristou, aimilia.papachristou@medcruise.com
