News

MedCruise elects Carla Salvadό as new President

Details: Written by Teijo Niemelä Teijo Niemelä; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 22 September 2014 22 September 2014

The 45th MedCruise General Assembly that was held in Barcelona, Spain elected Mrs Carla Salvadό, Marketing and Cruise Manager of the Port of Barcelona as the new President of the association representing cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas.

Carla Salvadό started working at the Port of Barcelona in 1992, and first involved in the cruise industry in 2003. She has worked for 3 years as Secretary General of MedCruise, and served its BoD in subsequent years. She is now the Marketing and Cruise Manager of the Port of Barcelona. She has studied Economics and Business Management at the Pompeu Fabra University and ESADE Business School.

She succeeds in the Presidency Stavros Hatzakos, General Manager of the Port of Piraeus. Hatzakos will continue serving the Association as Honorary President.

"I am very confident that the Association will continue to effectively represent all cruise ports in the Med and its adjoining seas. MedCruise is a unique association that unites and represents cruise ports that host over 20% of the global cruise traffic. I would like thank MedCruise members that trust me to lead the Association, and I am looking forward to work with all our members, in order to promote the cruise activities in each of them" said C. Salvadό following the announcement of the results.

Salvadό continued stating "Other cruise ports and cruise lines association are partners in these efforts, and along with the new Board of Directors I will work on maintaining a close relationship with all of them for increasing the prospects of cruising in the Med and beyond".

Along with its President, MedCruise elected its Board of Directors (BoD) members to serve for the period 2014-17.

The members of the new Board of Directors are Kristijan Pavic (Dubrovnik, Croatia, Senior Vice President), Maria Cano (Palamόs, Spain, Vice President), Figen Ayan (Istanbul, Turkey), Andreia Fernandes Ventura (Lisbon, Portugal), Anne-Sophie Peyran (French Riviera Ports, France), Airam Díaz Pastor (Tenerife Ports, Spain), Lotfi El Ajmi (Tunisian Ports, Tunisia), Elvira Leschinskaya (Odessa, Ukraine), Boyan Babic (Koper, Slovenia), Giampiero Costagli (Portoferraio, Italy), Marijan Petkovic (Sibenik, Croatia), and Vlado Mezak (Rijeka, Croatia).

During its meeting that took place immediately after the announcement of the election results, the new Board of Directors decided that the MedCruise Secretariat will continue to perform its tasks, from the Greek office of the Association at the Port of Piraeus, and reappointed Thanos Pallis as the Secretary General of the Association.

The 45th MedCruise General Assembly also welcomed two new members, Portofino, and Gioia Tauro, both from Italy, rising port membership to 73.

The 46th MedCruise General Assembly will take place in Zadar, Croatia, 3-6 June 2015.

Meyer Werft’s Turku acquisition and TUI Cruises’ two orders confirmed

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 19 September 2014 19 September 2014

Photo credit: Jouni Saaristo

Finnish government and the German shipbuilder Meyer Werft have finalised the purchase of the whole share capital of STX Finland Oy from STX Europe Ltd. Meyer Werft and the State of Finland had published the signing of the acquisition agreement on August 4, 2014. Now the remaining open conditions for the acquisition have been fulfilled: The German antitrust authority approved the corporate acquisition after completing a merger control review. Final decisions regarding construction financing with the commercial banks have also been obtained.

The new name of the company is Meyer Turku Oy.

Meanwhile, the order of German TUI Cruises of two new cruise ships from Meyer Turku has become effective. The ordered ships are sister ships for Mein Schiff 3, which was delivered from the Turku Shipyard in May 2014, and Mein Schiff 4, which will be delivered to TUI Cruises in May 2015. The order of these two new ships is expected to create a direct employment effect of at least 10,000 man years. The ships will be delivered in 2016 and 2017. Furthermore, Meyer Turku and TUI Cruises agreed on two options, with deliveries in 2018 and 2019.

Meyer Werft took up 70 percent of the shares and will carry the main responsibility for the yard’s operations and its further development. The State of Finland purchased 30 percent of the share capital through the Finnish Industry Investment Ltd, a fully government-owned investment company. The investors have injected new equity into the new company, which will constitute a solid basis for further development.

Cruising injected $44 billion in US economy 2013 – study

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 16 September 2014 16 September 2014

An independent report commissioned by CLIA from Business Research and Economic Advisers (BREA), The Contribution of the North American Cruise Industry to the U.S. Economy in 2013, has found that total contributions of the cruise industry to the U.S. economy reached a record $44.1 billion last yrear.

“The cruise industry supported 363,133 U.S. jobs, in every state, paying wages of $18.3 billion. Nearly 10 million cruise passengers embarked at U.S. ports, representing 57% of the North American cruise industry’s global embarkations,” the report said. U.S.-based direct spending by cruise lines, passengers, and crew totaled $20.1 billion, nearly double expenditures made in 2000. Nearly 70% of the cruise industry’s non-wage expenditures were made with U.S.-based businesses

The BREA study found that the positive impacts of the cruise industry are found in every state, ranging from 3,227 jobs and $138 million in direct purchases in Missouri, to more than 140,400 jobs and over $7.3 billion in direct purchases in Florida.

The top 10 U.S. cruise ports accounted for 86 percent of embarkations. Florida remains the center of cruising in the United States, with its five cruise ports accounting for nearly 62 percent of all U.S. embarkations in 2013. California, Texas, and New York each had more than 600,000 embarkations.