Welcome to MedCruise

Set up in Rome on the 11th of June 1996, MedCruise is the Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports. MedCruise's mission is to promote the cruise industry in the Mediterranean and its adjoining seas. The Association assists its members in benefiting from the growth of the cruise industry by providing networking, promotional and professional development opportunities.

Today, the association has grown to 70 members representing more than 100 ports around the Mediterranean region, including the Black Sea, the Red Sea and the Near Atlantic, plus 30 associate members, representing other associations, tourist boards and ship/port agents.

MedCruise appoints new Secretary General

In a move to further empower its role in the wider cruise market, MedCruise announced the appointment of Dr Thanos Pallis as its new Secretary General.

The move comes in light of latest developments in the sector and the resulting necessity to strengthen MedCruise presence on a number of issues of interest to its members.

To better serve cruise ports and associate members, MedCruise has restructured its secretariat. Appreciating the productive and successful work done for the association in the past two years by María de Larratea, she will now act as Deputy Secretary General, and together they will lead MedCruise to a new phase.

According to Stavros Hatzakos, MedCruise President: 'The restructuring results in a winning team that will further the excellent present work of the MedCruise Secretariat and enable the association to provide further benefits for all its members.'

'All our members face challenges, and expect MedCruise to continue its pivotal role and assist them in benefiting from the growth of the cruise industry by providing networking, promotional and professional development opportunities.

MedCruise promotes cruising at the Adriatic Sea Forum

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MedCruise participated in the first edition of the Adriatic Sea Forum which took place in Trieste, Italy, on March 21-22, 2013. Among the more than 250 operators from Albania, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia, MedCruise had a strong presence in the region with delegates from all the member ports from the Adriatic region.

MedCruise's Vice President, Bojan Babic (Koper) discussed the regions tariffs based on the Association's recently produced study on Benchmarking of Port Fees and sent out the message on the importance to establish competitive fees.

The Association's Secretary General Maria de Larratea participated in one of the Forum's highlight, which was a face to face debate with Robert Ashdown, CLIA Europe's Secretary General.

De Larratea stated: "The region really has no weak points. It offers fuel-efficient itineraries due to the short distances between the Adriatic ports. Many destinations are developing to adapt to the new industry needs. There are six countries in a small sea and this offers to the region a remarkable variety of culture and destinations."

On the other side, Ashdown explained that some of the reasons for the high growth of the region were the proximity to the central Europe market, and remarked the presence of several main airports as well as the variety of new destination available to the cruise lines.

MedCruise participates in Cruise Shipping Miami 2013

MedCruise participated in Cruise Shipping Miami 2013 with a very strong presence in this key international cruise event. For another year, the Association's stand offered to the members a space for meeting, networking and promoting their ports, companies and destinations, attracting the most relevant stakeholders of the cruise industry.

During the show, the Association presented to the public a preview on the MedCruise Statistics Report 2013 Edition, which showed the situation in MedCruise member ports the Mediterranean and adjacent seas.

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MedCruise President Stavros Hatzakos, presented the results in front of an audience that included port members, associated members, cruise line executives and other professionals from different sectors of the cruise industry.

Hatzakos remarked the 25 million passengers and almost 14.000 calls reached by MedCruise ports in 2012. During the last 10 years the number of bed days increased on 200% and in the last 5 years the increase was of 50%, despite the difficult financial situation.