Metamorphosis - Cruise Ship Portal

The port of Valletta in Malta
extended its waterfront quay in 2009
in a €2 million project.
Ports are struggling to keep up with the cracking pace of growth
set by the global cruise industry, especially in locations such as
the Mediterranean. Jodie McLeod talks to Luigi Pastena from
MSC Cruises about the challenges created by outdated port
infrastructure and the way forward for the cruise sector.
The cruise industry is entangled in
a love-hate relationship with
many ports in the Mediterranean
that are not keeping pace with the
industry’s rapid and continuous growth.
Cruise companies’ ships, fleets, passenger
numbers and ports of call are all increasing at
a rate disproportionate to their on-shore
partners in tourism, creating problems with
ship congestion, management of berth
availability, discontinuity between the at-sea
and on-shore experience for passengers and
frustrations for cruise ships and cruisers alike.
Keeping up with the cruises
Growth and advancement for the cruise
industry is imminent. The Cruise Lines
International Association (CLIA) forecasts
that a total of 14.3 million passengers
will cruise in 2010 (an increase of 6.4%
on 2009), while the industry will also
welcome 26 new ships between 2010
and 2012. In the Mediterranean, Italian
cruise line MSC Cruises has recorded a
four-fold rise in passenger numbers in the
past six years.
Port captain of MSC Cruises Luigi Pastena
says that lagging port infrastructure is in
dire need of attention if the cruise industry
is to stay at full speed ahead.
“My concern is that many piers are
the same as they were 30 years ago
when the maximum length of a cruise
ship was about 200m and a berth could
accommodate up to two vessels,” he
says. “Nowadays, the same berth is
Insight > Ports & destinations
Modernising the
Med
used by two 300m-long vessels, with
relatively poorer structures.”
While many ports are investing in new
infrastructures, in an industry where time
is of the essence and ship owners are
already envisaging the next generation’s
bigger and better new builds, port projects
simply aren’t moving fast enough.
A big problem is that projects are often
cancelled or delayed due to political issues
or mismanagement, or are only approved
when cruise companies actually build
the bigger vessels that were designed
several years prior. Pastena gives an
example of a project initiated by MSC in
1972, in which a new pier was to be built
in an existing port. After years of delays,
the project was only just completed in
2008. “The result is that now it is
inadequate for the new generation of
vessels,” says Pastena.
It seems the moment ports become
equipped to cater for the cruise industry of
the present, the present is in the past. The
availability of berths, and management of
World Cruise Industry Review | www.worldcruiseindustryreview.com 21