Planning for the future

THE heads of Malaga and Santa Cruz de Tenerife port authorities are working together to draw up a cruise package to offer companies with one of the two ports as its base.
The two directors, Paulino Plata from Malaga and Pedro Rodriguez from Tenerife, are analysing data to produce a closed package to meet the new demands of passengers which will include collaboration from UK and German airports to allow baggage to go straight from check-in desks to cabins.
“We’ve started a project which we want to use to maintain cruise activity over the winter months making the most of the good climate in the area,” Plata said.
“We want to make use of Malaga’s strategic location, which companies can use as a base to establish cruises in the Mediterranean or the Atlantic. At present, Atlantic routes are long and many leave from UK ports. Therefore we think new routes that will allow passengers to visit the Canary Islands and ports including Cadiz, Lisbon or Madeira could be attractive,” he explained.
The two directors hope to have the proposal ready as soon as possible to present it to cruise companies before they close their 2017 routes.