Alicante will become a Cruise ship home port again.

Description:

The CEO of MSC Cruises Spain, Emiliano Gonzalez, Alicante Mayor, Sonia Castedo, and the chairman of the port, Miguel Campoy, said that this decision will help spread the tourist season into the Autumn and represents the first time that a multinational Cruise Line makes the important port city of Alicante their embarkation port.

For 2010 there are ten scheduled cruise departures, seven of them on the ship ‘MSC Orchestra' (293.8 meters in length and with capacity for 2550 passengers) on an eight night and nine day itinerary from Alicante to Barcelona, Genoa, Malaga, Cadiz, Gibraltar and Lisbon.

The ‘MSC Orchestra', launched in 2007, will depart on 22 and September 30, 8, 16 and October 24 and November 9 and 1, with a planned occupancy of 98% of its nearly 800 cabins.

The 'MSC Opera' (launched 2003) shall be sailing on September 26 and October 3 to Marseilles, Genoa, Civitavecchia (Rome), Malaga and Tangier.

MSC Cruise already use Alicante as one of their itinerary stops but are attracted by the new facilities of El Altet, the large resident population of the Southern Costa Blanca and willingness of the Port Authorities to work closely with them.

MSC noted that the cruise market is booming in Spain; around half a million people sailed in 2008, putting Spain in fourth place for cruise tourism in Europe, following the United Kingdom (1.3 million cruise passengers last year), Germany (900,000) and Italy (700,000).

News story by Keith Nicol mcij (Tel: (+34) 609 06 36 14)

• Log On ~ Find Out: The Costa Blanca's WEB TV Information Station
• Professional Photography and Video services for the Web, Broadcast TV, Commercial, Business, Real Estate, Marketing, Weddings & Special Events or just for fun!
• The place for friendly advice and information about weddings in Spain

Like this story? Why not use our RSS Feed and receive updates as soon as they are posted?

What is an RSS Feed?

Or join us as a member and receive a monthly newsletter.

Check out Guide2Valencia for Property, Accommodation, Events, Things to Do, News, Classifieds, Local Attractions, plus Business Listings.