Cruises, Sardinian ports increasingly attractive: infrastructural interventions and "green" changes planned

After the recovery and three-digit percentage growth of the current season, 2024 will be the year of the leap in quality for the cruise market in the island system ports .

This is the outcome of the two days of promotional activity of the Sardinia Sea Port System Authority at Seatrade Europe, an event dedicated to the cruise industry which restarts from Hamburg after a four-year interruption.

The 2023 edition, for which the president of the Authority, Massimo Deiana, and the marketing manager, Valeria Mangiarotti, showcased the innovations in terms of the infrastructural offer and services of the Sardinia system in the Italian pavilion organized by Assoporti. .

«Strengthened by the current exponential growth on all ports, with peaks of 150 percent on Cagliari and 100 percent on Olbia compared to last year, we can finally look at new margins for maneuver to further increase the attractiveness of the relevant ports - underlines Deiana - with particular attention to the reconsolidation of traffic in the Porto Torres port and the development of Oristano, Arbatax and Golfo Aranci . There are numerous and winning cards on the table, starting from the electrification of the docks , a project worth over 70 million euros, through to the infrastructural interventions".

The green turning point, in addition to the reduction of polluting emissions into the air, will allow the system authority's ports to seize new growth opportunities in a market which, according to data released by CLIA in recent days, sees 46 percent of the global cruise fleet already equipped with electrical connection systems , but less than 2 percent of ports ready to offer the service.

WHAT'S NEW – On the infrastructure front, Cagliari will see an increase in the number of available docks which, in the historic port, once the transfer of commercial traffic to the canal port is completed, will be used for cruises. In Olbia , the challenge is to start the dredging operations quickly and obtain approval of the technical-functional adaptation that will allow the creation of a dock approximately 320 meters long. For Porto Torres , however, the focus is on the work on the breakwater and on the deepening of the seabed of the civic port .

The Oristano port is also under observation which, after the first positive test in May with the Costa Diadema port, is entering the mega cruise ship market. As well as Arbatax , for which works to upgrade the airport are awaited.

There are several new features for 2024. Starting with the arrival in Cagliari of the Explora I, the first ship of the new MSC luxury brand, Explora Journeys. The return of Costa Crociere to Olbia, with the planning of a full seasonal calendar. But also the exploratory ports of call of Marella Cruises in Oristano which could join those, to be defined, of the Costa group. And the new programming, which will already start in the experimental phase from this month on Porto Torres, of the French CFC which, with the Renaissance, will return to the Turritan port also in the second half of 2024.

(Unioneonline/vl)