[:gl]Novas[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:]

The port of A Coruña could beat its record of stopovers and visitors and those of Vigo and Ferrol aspire to reach the pre-pandemic figures.

After a year and a half with hardly any activity, cruise tourism in Galicia is confident of consolidating during 2022 the recovery begun in the last months of the year just ended and even reaching record figures for berths and visitors. This is the case of the port of A Coruña, which is facing the new year with the forecast of receiving a total of 170 cruise ships, which will allow it to amply surpass the 120 berths registered in 2017, the busiest year to date in the city of A Coruña. Such a positive outlook in terms of the number of cruise ships means that the figure of 185,000 cruise passengers received in 2017 could also be exceeded, although this will depend on the evolution of the pandemic and the changes in the capacity restrictions to which vessels are subject due to covid.

Also in Vigo, 2022 should be the year of the recovery of cruise tourism. With almost a hundred stopovers (twenty of them inaugural) already confirmed for the next twelve months, the prospects for visitors are around 150,000 cruise passengers, although also at the expense of what happens with the limitations on the occupation of the ships and the evolution of the pandemic and the possible restrictions on travel in the travellers’ countries of origin. With these figures, the port of Vigo would already be in a position to reach the average of recent years, which is around 160,000 passengers.

In Ferrol, the Port Authority’s forecasts are also positive. In this case, the 17 confirmed stopovers and the more than 25,000 cruise passengers that could disembark in the city, according to the most optimistic estimate, would mean reaching the figures prior to the pandemic. Nine companies have included Ferrol in their routes and 12 passenger ships will visit the city, repeating calls in several cases, such as the MSC Poesía, which will do so on three occasions.

The port of Vilagarcía de Arousa also hopes to improve its position in the cruise market by 2022, while the port of Marínplans to build a berthing area during the first quarter of this year to enable it to join this business segment.