Ushuaia in the extreme south of Argentina is experiencing one of the busiest weeks of the current cruise season with six vessels and thousands of visitors calling at the capital of Tierra del Fuego. This includes the Emerald Princess, which is the largest to visit the End of the World city and will be completing its third call this season.
Seatrade Cruise Global, the leading annual global business-to-business event in the cruise industry, will return to the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center 8-11 April 2019 after a three year stint at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Broward County Convention Center.
Argentina is expecting 490.000 cruise visitors this season and is targeting a million visitors in the following years, and to promote this policy it has announced a drastic cut in port fees and costs, with special emphasis on those vessels which are over 300 meters long.
French luxury shipping line Ponant announced a world first with a hybrid electric-LNG powered icebreaker. The luxury vessel promises to deliver around 300 passengers to places never before visited by cruise passengers in ultra-luxury – and with the least damage to the environment.
A record number of cruises are set to call at Gibraltar this year, representing an 11% increase on last year with an estimated 350,000 passengers from 227 visits. Some 18 cruise ships will make their first ever visits to Gibraltar with six of the brand new vessels selecting Gibraltar as part of their maiden season.
An estimated 58.000 visitors have been confirmed for this coming 2013/14 cruise season at the extreme south Chile cities of Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, although the overall number is slightly less than the 62.000 of this last season according to Epaustral, the Austral Port Corporation.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) announced this week that its Board of Directors approved the adoption of a “Cruise Industry Passenger Bill of Rights” detailing CLIA members' commitment to the safety, comfort and care of guests in a number of important areas.
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.
More than 4,000 people, passengers and crew members, disembarked on Friday from a crippled cruise ship that docked at Mobile, Alabama four days after an engine fire knocked out power while sailing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ushuaia tourism operators expressed concern and called for common sense to prevail after two major cruises finally decided this week not to call at in Argentine Tierra del Fuego after local authorities could not guarantee that the visiting vessels would not be exposed to the same intimidation tactics and delays experienced recently in Buenos Aires and earlier this year in the extreme south terminal because they include the Falkland Islands in their itineraries.