Good news for Italian cruise industry comes from Seatrade Cruise Global which was held in Miami recently.
Sergio Senesi, president of Cemar Agency Network of Genoa, announced that Italian cruise industry has been growing again by aligning itself with the international trend. The 2019 and 2020 forecasts for Italian cruise sector are very encouraging. “In Italy, cruises are again growing strongly. There will be a + 7.13% expected in terms of the number of the passengers in 2019,” declared Senesi, “and especially, an additional + 7.88% shall be increased in 2020 on the basis of the previous year. I believe that such a positive result must be mainly attributed to the new units to become part of all the most important cruise ship fleets.”
According to the estimate of Cemar Agency Network, at the end of 2019, in Italian ports, there will be 11.911 million passengers (+ 7.13% compared to 2018) and 4,860 ships to be handled, 149 of which will be in transit in Italian waters representing 46 cruise companies.
The very first estimates for 2020 are very positive. The projections indicate a further growth in the field. The Italian ports expects receive 13 million passengers (+ 7.88% compared to 2019).
70 Italian ports are involved for 2019 cruise traffic estimates. Compared with 2018, Civitavecchia will continue be the first place with 2.567 million passengers (+ 5.13%). Followed by Venice with 1.544 million passengers (-1.06%) and Genoa with 1.343 million passengers (+ 32.79%). Naples ranked fourth with 1.187 million (+ 20.35%), then Livorno with 812,000 passengers (+ 3.29%). The rest top 10 Italian ports are Savona, Bari, La Spezia, Palermo and Messina.
The companies, who will handle the largest number of passengers in Italian ports in 2019, are MSC Cruises (3.622 million pax), Costa Cruises (2.725 million pax) and Norwegian Cruise Line (863,000 pax).
For Italian ports, the busiest months will be in: October (1.744 million passengers and 781 stopovers), June (1.505 million passengers and 614 stopovers), September (1.497 million passengers and 627 stopovers) and May(1.488 million passengers and 687 stopovers). The least-busy months will obviously be the winter ones: February (166,000 passengers and 59 stopovers) and January (193,000 passengers and 60 stopovers). The busiest day will be 11 October with over 73,000 passengers handled in a single day.
“Positive forecasts for the two-year period (2019-2020) must not lead us to lower our guard,” adds Senesi, underlining that there are still wide margins for development, “Italy is in fact the first cruise destination in the Mediterranean, and thanks to the next new ships more and more “green” being delivered during this two-year period, there will be further space for growth.”
