Atlantic Alliance positive about future growth

The latest Atlantic Alliance members meeting was held on the 1st of July in Lisbon. Together the members took stock of previous developments and formulated appropriate marketing measures for the future.

Hamburg/Lisbon. The 17 member ports of the Atlantic Alliance are currently expecting for the ongoing 2010 season an increase in calls of over 7,8 percent on the previous year. Meanwhile the total passenger volume will grow from 1, 57 million in 2009 to 1, 75 million in 2010, an increase of 12, 4 percent.

Lisbon tops the list as the Atlantic Alliance port with the most passengers at 460.000, followed by Dover (325.977 passengers) and Vigo (230.000 passengers). Hamburg is currently expecting over 100 calls for the first time with a passenger volume in excess of 200 000.

But the association is not all about the large ports and there are notable changes amongst the smaller ports as well. Antwerp expects nearly four times the passenger volume over the previous year (2009: 8.000 passengers/2010: 30.000 passengers), whilst Portland is doubling the number of calls and seeing nearly three times as many passengers as in 2009. The member ports of the Atlantic Alliance are positive about future growth, as Europe remains a central focus of the cruise industry. With the mutual understanding that each port is only one element of the ‘cruise’ product and that cruise lines are constantly searching for new cruise destinations, the 17 member ports are fully focused on further developing the project. "The Atlantic Alliance is a perfect example of how an innovative idea can be packaged and marketed as a new product. What could be more exciting than visiting these fantastic Western European capitals with a cruise ship?" Commented Michael Ungerer, Senior Vice President Operations AIDA Cruises.

The future continues to look positive and further growth is forecast, for example AIDA Cruises has already scheduled three ships in the region of the Atlantic Alliance for early 2011. ”AIDAblu”, “AIDAcara” and “AIDAsol” will offer cruises between Hamburg and Lisbon.

To attract more business and to increase the awareness of the Atlantic Alliance cruise region, the ports representatives took the opportunity of the meeting to define their marketing strategy for the future. Beside the already existing tools, such as Itinerary Planner, Destination Videos and different theme cruises, the Atlantic Alliance is now looking to further promote its offering through new avenues such as Social Media.

The Port of Lisbon, hosting member for the Atlantic Alliance meeting, is investing in a new quay of 670m in length which will be linked to the Santa Apolonia quay of 400m, according to Manuela Patricio, cruise and nautical department. The depth will be 12m and there will be no restrictions in the turning basin. A new terminal is also to be built in the same area.

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