Cruise passengers are not betraying Italy

Genoa - Italy remains at the top of the list and remains the biggest cruise ship destination in Europe again in 2016, and will close the year with 10,948,000 passengers moved. Our leadership is uncontested, for the moment, which does of course cause some trepidation about the future: and while the global trend is growing strongly, Italy remains essentially stable (+0.37% compared to 2015). “The cruise ship market is proving Italy’s solidity and the appeal that it has always had, with a strong increase at the global level,” Sergio Senesi explained. Senesi is the former president of the Genoese agency CEMAR, which presented its data from the company’s analysis, at Seatrade in Fort Lauderdale. He added, “The price of bunker is at historical lows and the weakening of the Euro supports the influx of cruise passengers from the USA and Great Britain. But Italy remains at the same figures as last year, despite the new ships that are shortly coming out of the shipyards, the return of a few companies and the changes to the itinerary carried out to eliminate North African and Turkish calls from the programmes.” Civitavecchia remains the most popular cruise port in Italy once again in 2016, with 2,310,000 passengers moved, followed by Venice (1,550,000) and Naples (1,170,000). Genoa came in fourth place (980,000), followed by Savone (960,000) and Livorno (750,000): these six ports altogether handle over 75% of Italian cruise ship traffic. Next in order are the ports of La Spezia, Palermo, Bari, Messina Cagliari, Salerno, Olbia and 61 other minor ports. The top six Italian ports, according to the data announced by CEMAR, handle over 75% of Italy’s cruise traffic. These are positive figures, but the experts say that there is a danger that they could stall in 2017. Senesi concluded, “In Italy there is too much bureaucracy and too little willingness to establish efficient collaboration. We feel the lack of shared strategies and national leadership.”