Cruises in Spain: new cruise operator in Valencia

Photo: Alesya Belaya

Starting from July 1, 2012 new operator will appear in Valencia, one of the largest port cities in Spain. It will be Valencia Passenger Services Terminal company, which will provide for a full range of services for ships and passengers arriving and departing for cruises from Valencia.

New cruise operator in Valencia will transport the luggage, as well as provide passengers for transfer services from the ship to the terminal and from the terminal to the city center.

At this stage at the port of Valencia the former building of the ferry terminal built 40 years ago is being reconstructed for organizing comfortable accommodation of cruise passengers. Here Valencia Passenger Services Terminal will organize luggage receiving point, point of registration, recreation area and cafe. The total cost of works is estimated at 500 thousand Euros.

Currently Valencia is one of the most popular Mediterranean cruise ports in Spain. In 2012 it is expected to receive in total about 200 ships. Among the companies, which ships will likely visit the port, are Costa Cruises and Pullmantur, MSC Cruises. However, Valencia still looses in equipment and passenger traffic flow to such Spanish ports like Barcelona or Malaga. It is especially noticeable, when the port is overloaded due to the major global events such as Formula 1 Grand Prix in Valencia. For example, last year the cruise port of Valencia received over 43 thousand passengers before the Gran Prix.

The new operator will include four companies - Bergé, Pérez & Cia, Roca Monzó and Transcoma. It is expected that the main task of Valencia Passenger Services Terminal will be modernizing the cruise port of Valencia to the same level of services as the main Spanish cruise leaders.

In 2011 the total number of cruise passengers in the port of Valencia has exceeded 370 thousand people, which is by 49% more than last year.

Autor: Ilya Kalachev