the big issue in the dock
As overcrowding at ports becomes ever more of an issue, lines are shifting their sights elsewhere. Jane Archer looks at where they’re heading
It’s said that when one door closes, another opens, and that’s certainly the case in the cruise world, as lines look for alternative ports of call to cities struggling with overcrowding. ौH 'XWFK SRUW RI 5RिHUGDP KDV
seen a big increase in business since Amsterdam’s decision last year to slap an €8-a-day tourist tax on cruise passengers. 06& &UXLVHV UHDFWHG ਭUVW PRYLQJ
all overnight calls. Cruise & Maritime Voyages soon followed, moving 37 cruises PRUH WKDQ
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this year and next. P&O Cruises has seven 5RिHUGDP FDOOV LQ WKH QH[W
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has moved most of its Amsterdam business to IJmuiden, a 25-minute drive away.
TAX LEVIES WKH RQO\ SRUW SXिLQJ WۑQVL $PVWHUGDP a price tag on stays. Barcelona levies a €2.25 per person tax on cruise passengers staying longer than 12 hours in port, and Venice plans to introduce a tax of up to €10 per day from January 1. Others cap the numbers. Last year,
Dubrovnik imposed a limit of two ship calls per day; Bruges plans to do the same in Zeebrugge; and the Balearic Islands’ government is under pressure to reduce calls in Palma to one per day with a maximum 4,000 passengers.
PORTS ON THE RADAR It’s an opportunity for up-and-coming ports. Trieste is eyeing more cruise cash since MSC Cruises’ decision to invest in
travelweekly.co.uk/cruise
its cruise terminal and homeport there from summer 2020, giving the line an DOWHUQDWLYH $GULDWLF SRUW WR 9HQLFH ौH two are only 90 minutes apart, so the ODिHU LV FORVH HQRXJK IRU D GD\ WULS Rather than waiting for the axe
to fall, Cunard has been adding new ports over the past two years. Hvar is one, as an alternative to Dubrovnik, as is Haugesund, in Norway, in case restrictions are imposed in Bergen. But cruise lines are not scouting out
SRUWV MXVW WR DYRLG ERिOHQHFNV ौH\ also need them to refresh itineraries and entice past passengers. Azamara is making its Cape Town
debut in December and will be back there 22 times over the next two years on new South Africa safari cruises; MSC Cruises has added Qatari capital Doha as a departure port on 14-night Middle East voyages in 2020, in partnership with Qatar Airways; and Celebrity Cruises has added Rijeka in northern Croatia.
EYES ON ISTANBUL Cruise lines are rediscovering Istanbul D़HU SXOOLQJ RXW LQ
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terrorism. Marella Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Holland America Line, Azamara and Oceania Cruises are among those returning this year and next, and also going back to Kusadasi, gateway to Roman Ephesus. Celestyal Cruises, meanwhile, overnights in Istanbul on its new seven-night Eclectic Aegean cruise from Piraeus.
Rotterdam has seen a big increase in business since Amsterdam’s decision to tax cruise passengers
September 2019 11
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