Catania Cruise Port has formally ended its 2022 cruise season, with port calls and passenger arrivals displaying a serious rebound in comparison with the earlier yr. The Sicilian port’s outlook for 2023 is also brilliant, port officers declared.
Numbers Present Massive Enchancment Over 2021
Officers at Catania Cruise Port’s closing ceremony for the 2022 cruise season, held on December 21, had been enthusiastic in regards to the variety of ship calls — there have been 90, and the quantity of cruise passengers visiting the port reached almost 140,000.
The post-pandemic progress represents a considerable enchancment over 2021, when there have been simply 21 port calls and 14,000 cruise passengers arriving.
Raffaella Del Prete, Normal Supervisor of Catania Cruise Port, mentioned, “The resumption of cruise site visitors after the pandemic is clear within the sector and Catania Cruise Port, with intense advertising and collaboration work with native establishments and realities, has managed to rapidly resume efficiency and essential volumes.
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“Thanks additionally to the community of the group we belong to, World Ports Holding, we’re working exhausting to make sure that this progress is confirmed and accentuated in 2023 and within the years to come back,” added Del Prete.
Passenger Arrivals to Attain 150K in 2023
Waiting for the 2023 season, officers are upbeat because the port is in line to obtain about 90 port calls and 150,000 passengers. The port’s main cruise buyer is Costa Cruises, principally serving the Italian market, plus the TUI and AIDA, manufacturers, which largely serve the German market and are “true admirers of the Sicilian vacation spot,” the officers mentioned.
Costa Deliziosa, actually, referred to as at Catania on its first cruise in 2020, when service resumed after the Covid suspension. And it was an AIDA Cruises’ ship, the AIDAblu, that was the primary to name because it opened the port’s 2022 season final March.
The port this yr posted vital progress within the quantity of embarkations and disembarkations, due to the weekly arrival of the Costa Pacifica, which visited each Sunday between June and September.
Catania is the port for Mount Etna, the volcano that’s lower than an hour’s drive from the Catania port and a serious shore tour web site. Different main cruise traces that repeatedly referred to as on the port this yr included Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Sea Cloud Cruises and Emerald Cruises, in keeping with the port.
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Pre-Covid Arrival Numbers Nonetheless Elusive
Whereas the 2022 season is taken into account a hit by port officers, the Port of Catania nonetheless has a option to go earlier than reaching its pre-Covid period arrivals.
In keeping with port information, in 2019, there have been 113 ship calls and 208,000 cruise visitor arrivals. That represented a giant bounce over 2018, when the port recorded 70 calls and 124,000 passenger arrivals.
Catania has competitors from cruise ports in Palermo and Messina, and to a lesser diploma, from Taormina, which has no cruise terminal however is a port name for ships that anchor offshore and tender passengers to shore. Catania Cruise Port is a part of the World Ports Holding (GPH) community, which operates 26 cruise ports in 14 nations.
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