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ARCHIVED - Only August cruise ship for Cartagena cancelled as Spanish ports remain closed
The ban prohibiting the entry of any cruise ships into Spanish ports remains in place as we go "full steam ahead" towards “cruise ship season”
Tourism is a sector which has been very much in the eye of the storm since covid-19 first landed on Spain, and one of the areas most damaged has been that of cruise ship tourism.
In the early days of the pandemic some of the first cases which really caught the eye of the travelling public were those on cruise ships
The British-registered Diamond Princess was the first cruise ship to report a major outbreak on board, and as a result the vessel was quarantined in Yokohama from 4th February 2020 for approximately one month. Over 700 people became infected, and 14 people died.
Governments and ports responded by preventing many cruise ships from docking and advising people to avoid travelling on cruise ships. Many cruise ship operators cancelled their operations to mitigate the spread of the pandemic and by May 2nd,over 40 cruise ships had reported confirmed positive cases of coronavirus on board
The Spanish Government banned cruise ships from docking in Spanish ports, adversely affecting the tourism sector and retail sales in the centre of Cartagena, which has worked for years to build a cruise ship tourism industry.
It had been hoped that by the end of August the ban could be lifted, and the only vessel scheduled for August be permitted to dock on August 28th ahead of the normally busy autumn season.
The World Explorer (a cruise ship operated by German operator Mystic Cruises) carrying 200 passengers, was scheduled to call in at La Coruña, Seville, Malaga and Cartagena, but although authorizations were requested from the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Foreign Health, permission has been denied due to the ongoing Covid Pandemic and the first cruise ship of the autumn season has been cancelled.
Cartagena has been preparing a campaign to prove to tour operators that it is a safe tourist destination, the 'Cartagena, Safe Cruise Destination' campaign including a number of actions ranging from adaptation of the terminal to the new health security protocols, the health control of passengers and ground personnel, the training of each and every one of the employees who access the terminal and certification of the facilities, and local businesses have also adapted their premises hoping to see a resumption of the spending by foreign tourists which has formerly boosted their takings.
There are still several vessels scheduled to visit Cartagena during September should the situation change; the Britannia with 4,400 passengers on September 8th and 22nd, on the 23rd the Seadream I, with 118 tourists and on the 24th the World Voyager -400 passengers- and Costa Fascinosa -with 3,617-, are still showing as possibles on the cruise ship schedule, although should the epidemic continue to evolve in a similar fashion, the ports of Spain may continue resolutely shut to cruise ship passengers during the most important months of the year.
Image: Cartagena Port Authority