MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Record 2023/24 cruise season for Uruguay; port incentives for 2024/25 season

A busy cruise day in Punta del Este. The regional encounter on cruise tourism was held in Punta del Este, on August 1 and 2

Uruguay will be reducing 20% port tariffs for cruise vessels this coming season 2024/25, announced further infrastructure facilities in Maldonado and marinas for large yachts in the harbors of Carmelo and Colonia, just across from Buenos Aires.

The announcement took place during the Tenth Regional Meeting of Cruise and Fluvial Tourism held in the international seaside resort of Punta del Este, where Uruguayan authorities also released the 2023/24 cruise season figures totaling 187 cruise calls and 324,000 landing visitors in Montevideo and Maldonado, and an estimated injection of some 17,5 million dollars to the local economy.

“We are counting on the design and development of strategies which can promote an effective, sustainable and environmental friendly growth of the tourism activity”, said Uruguay Tourism minister Eduardo Sanguinetti.

However despite “the very good numbrers”, he admitted that the main challenge consists “in increasing the number of cruise vessels and visitors arriving to our country, we need to increase call spots for vessels, full day and overnight passengers and improve the quality of services”.

A member of the Uruguay ports administration, Daniel Loureiro underlined that cruise tourism is a regional market, it does not visit the ports of a certain country but of a region, and this means “our ports must develop and offer the best services possible taking into account a harmonious relation with technologic and environment challenges.”

Loureiro also mentioned regional competitiveness, since although not mentioned during the encounter, it was known that the port of Buenos Aires rolled docking costs for cruise vessels to half, ahead of the coming season.

Also present at the regional meeting was Chile's deputy Tourism minister, Veronica Pardo Lagos, the foreign affairs advisor to the Brazilian tourism office, Heitor Kadri and Marco Ferraz regional head of the Cruise Lines International Association, CLIA, plus representatives from Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises Argentina branch.