Taranto: “We’ll restart with cruises”

Genoa - The port of Taranto plans to make the most of the cruise ship and mega yacht sectors of the market. To be clear, a project to revamp sections of the port of Taranto to attract tourism has been in the works for some time, now. Among the points proposed, there’s the suggestion that the city could reclaim disused areas of the port that are owned by the navy. There’s recently been some movement on that front: after face to face meetings, Port Authority management and Navy officials are on the verge of reaching a definite agreement about placing those areas at the disposal of the Authority. In a matter of weeks, then, an agreement could be found. The Authority initially proposed their acquisition of the 750 metre long dock, formerly used for torpedo-boats, along the Mar Piccolo basin, three years ago; it’s taken this long for the issue to be resolved. Work on converting that area of the port could last a few years and would be funded by public financing. The project would mean putting within Taranto’s reach the goal of becoming a port-of-call for small-ship luxury cruises, as well as large leisure yachts. Port of Taranto’s head, Sergio Prete, explains: “the ambition is to attract high-end tourists,” and especially, “ships under 1,000 passengers and mega yachts that ply our waters; the project is ready to go, now is the right moment to seize the opportunity.”

But Taranto has been through some challenging times, not just because of the shutdown at ILVA, but also the drop in container traffic which has now dwindled to nothing. The Port Committee decreed, in recent days, the termination of the concession given to TCT Terminal. On 12 June, the company started liquidation procedures and initiated a process of redundancies for its 540 employees, for whom the employment insurance benefits’ period ran out on 28 May. “This episode, however,” explained Mr. Prete, “has no bearing on our desire to open up to tourism. We take freight transport as a given, we’re in talks with the government trying to come up with alternatives, some interested operators are already engaged with us in discussions.” At the moment, this port, the largest municipality in the Salento region, sees a couple of cruise ships calling each year. “Because Brindisi and Bari,” underscored Teodoro Titi, shipping agent in the yacht division at Federagenti, “already fulfil all the demands. It’s going to be an uphill struggle for Taranto to overcome this situation, especially to promote itself as a tourist destination; it’ll be tough but there’s potential.”