MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay satisfied with the latest cruise season, but there could be difficulties ahead

Carambula said that the number of calls was up 10% compared to the previous season

The Uruguayan 2012/13 cruise season experienced a 10% increase in the number of calls to the ports of Montevideo and Punta del Este totalling 240 and approximately 400.000 visitors between passengers and crew members.

“We reached our expectations”, said Deputy Tourism minister Antonio Carambula on making an assessment of the last cruise season and its results compared to 2011/12. “We had 240 calls in Montevideo and the sea resort of Punta del Este with 400.000 visitors during the October/April span”.

Carambula said that Montevideo has been confirmed as a port for passenger exchanges and the port of Colonia, to the west of Montevideo just across from Buenos Aires is expected to be included in the cruise tours.

However the coming seasons could present some difficulties admitted Carambula: “some companies have confirmed they will continue to call in Uruguay, while others are going to adjust their itineraries”.

He mentioned that “some difficulties in the region’s ports, not in Uruguay have convinced ‘Costa Cruceros’ to reduce the number of frequencies”.

Nevertheless Costa will continue to use Montevideo as a transfer point for passengers, and at some points could even increase that activity.

Carambola said that there is “a good evaluation of the tourist attractions in Uruguay, as well as of security, which is a plus over other destinations in the region, and we must continue efforts to ensure such condition”.

“Cruise passenger evaluation of Uruguay has been high, both in our surveys and in the polls taken by the cruise companies”, concluded Carambula.