MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay’s cruise season “very good”; caution about 2009/2010

Busy cruise season at Punta del Este

The 2008/09 cruise season in Uruguay has come to an end over the weekend totalling 169 calls which is 87% higher than the previous season. However the big news is that while the port of the capital Montevideo virtually received the same number of tourists, the exclusive South Atlantic sea-side resort of Punta del Este almost doubled the calls.

“It has been a good cruise season, there’s no doubt about it”, said Ana Pascale head of Cruise Vessels Department in Uruguay’s Ministry of Tourism, adding that Montevideo had 83 calls between the beginning of December and this weekend.

In practical numbers this means that 107.000 passengers and 50.000 crew visited Montevideo during the five months, which is slightly less than the 98 calls of last season with 122.000 passengers and 55.000 crew members.

But Punta del Este, “was beyond our expectations”, admitted Pascale: on December 19 cruise vessels called in; 30 in January; 22 in February; 12 in March and three in April including the “C Columbus” which this weekend closed the season.

Punta del Este Port Master, Captain Carlos Jaunsolo said the calls represented an 18.7% increase in December; 20% in January; 4.7% in February and 200% both in March and April, “and if we didn’t manage more was because of weather conditions, I think 6 or 7 calls were cancelled because of unexpected conditions”.

“It was basically a season without complications or inconveniences. The only incident was the Italian cruise vessel Costa Romantic which was not scheduled to call in Punta del Este”, said Jaunsolo.

Costa Romantica had to cast anchor during 20 hours seven miles west of Punta del Este following the outbreak of fire in one of the generators in the engine room. The fire was rapidly under control but the passengers had to be evacuated.

According to Jaunsolo the surge of Punta del Este as a schedule for the cruise industry can be attributed to improved services; confidence building among cruise operators; multi options for visitors and an excellent coordination between the different ministries involved, Tourism, Interior, Defence and Transport plus the regional governments.

Although far from Queen Mary 2, the last cruise of the season C Columbus belongs to Hapag Lloyd and arrived over the weekend to Punta del Este with 400 visitors. The 145 meters long vessel was built in Germany in 1999.

As to the coming season Ms Pascale said that there’s a “cautious hopefulness” because of the global crisis, “although so far we have not felt the impact for the cruise industry in Uruguay”.

“Bookings are done with at least six months anticipation so the crisis didn’t really impact this season because it triggered September/October. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen but the private sector with government support has been present at several of the industry’s conventions, for example the annual Seatrade in Miami. We are relatively optimistic”, said Pascale.

Source : El País