On the second day of the 46th MedCruise General Assembly, a gulf between the perspective of MedCruise and that of the cruise lines on several issues became apparent. Alan Lam reports from Zadar.

Despite years of continuous dialogue and hard work, there still appeared to be a gap between the practices of the ports and the expectations of cruise lines.

During the State of the Port Industry session, Carla Salvadó, President of MedCruise, presented a comprehensive and well-assembled 10-section, 70-question Fact Finding Report on behalf of the organisation. The report covered a wide range of topics relating to MedCruise member ports, including port profiles, berthing policies, user satisfaction surveys, operational issues and challenges.

While both parties recognised the importance of Europe and the Mediterranean to the cruise business as a whole, it soon transpired that there still remained significant differences in standpoints between MedCruise member ports and cruise lines on several key issues, chiefly among them were the fact that MedCruise’s order of priorities and challenges being a departure from those of the cruise lines. A number of port practices, such as the first-come-first-serve berthing policy adopted by several ports, were still not in line with the expectations of the cruise lines.

It also transpired that bridging this seemingly unbridgeable gap in itself was a robust challenge; more dialogues between the two parties were needed and much more must be done. MedCruise is continuing its efforts relentlessly.

A fuller report and detailed analysis will be published in the next edition of Cruise Business Review.