CRUISE
Colon 200, Cruise Ship Terminal
Transcanal cruising maintains high interest for passengers
C
ruise tourism and the massive arrival of passengers is becoming a trademark of Panama, translating into higher incomes for a large number of businesses, from restaurants to bars and to vendors of crafts and souvenirs. Cruise lines, such as Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) and Celebrity Cruises have made of Panama one of their main destinations, calling on the Atlantic and Pacific entrances of the Panama Canal. The 2010-2011 season saw a record number of passengers, with 340,000 visitors disembarking in Panama, and in spite of a sluggish global economy the cruise industry is doing well. RCCL began calling Colon 2000, the cruise terminal on the Atlantic side, its home port in November 2008 and again in the following cruise season 2009-2010, with the 90,000dwt 2,500-passenger Enchantment of the Seas. Carnival Cruise Lines also made regular calls to the Atlantic side every 28 days, say Colon 2000 officials.
Panama is a favourite amongst tourists since it presents a good opportunity to go shopping in the many commercial malls, take a ride on the trans-isthmian railroad
that runs from Colon to Panama City, or visit the beautiful beaches of Panama. For the October 2011-July 2012 season, some 150 cruise vessels had confirmed their visits by end of August, less than the 158 cruise vessels confirmed a year before, says Augusto Terracina, gm of Colon 2000 cruise terminal and parent company Aventuras 2000. Tourism operators, such as Aventuras 2000, forecast that 325,000 passengers will disembark during the next season, attributing the slight decrease to the economic crisis in the US but ‘Panama is a stable market and it is not unusual that the market presents
Cruising the Panama Canal remains one of the most popular and sought after destinations in Central America and the Caribbean.
some variations,’ he says.
RCCL has already announced that some of cruises will not call Panama during the season 2011-2012. The cruise line’s absence will be compensated by an increase of calls by Celebrity Cruises.
However, for the third year in a row RCCL’s Grandeur of the Seas, with a capacity for 2,446 passengers, and Horizon from the Spanish line Pullmantur, will call Colon 2000 their homeport in the 2011-2012 season, says Terracina.
Pullmantur Line will shorten its calls to five months from nine months since the liner will use vessels with greater capacity. Cruising the Panama Canal remains one of the most popular and sought after destinations in Central America and the Caribbean, with stops at Panama’s ports included. The Panama Canal recorded 214 transits by cruise ships with a total of 260,760 passengers, during the cruise season (October 2010-June 2011), thus slightly decreasing by 3.6% from 222 transits during the same period a year ago. Panama Canal toll earnings by cruise ships during the peak months of the cruise season (October 1, 2010-July 6, 2011) grew by 10.2% to $44.99m, compared to $40.02m, a year ago with toll average of $205,446.51 per vessel.
‘Despite the not so upbeat state of the cruise industry for some operators, the canal transit still maintains high interest for passengers and there will always be demand for transcanal cruising. Making the transit of the canal on board such a vessel gives the passenger a glimpse of Panama’s attractions and provides excellent publicity to promote a future visit, while taking advantage of one of the many newly established accommodation and facilities around the country,’ says CB Fenton & Co. vp, Adrian Holmes.
CB Fenton has a large cruise clientele 90 PANAMA MARITIME REVIEW 2011/12
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