The annual Cruise Europe conference reunerates these in Santander to about a hundred participants on behalf of the ports of northern Europe, shipping companies and operators in the cruise sector. Among the members of this international organization that integrates more than one hundred ports of the north and west of Europe, are the ports of Lisbon, Vigo, Santander, Bilbao, Brest, Le Havre, Dover, Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Malmo, Riga, Tallin, St. Petersburg and Helsinki, among others.
Between April 28, and Thursday, Santander will be the headquarters of this meeting in which sectoral and regional meetings will be held and aspects related to the cruise industry in northern Europe will be discussed.
The opening ceremony will be on Wednesday 29 at the Palacio de la Magdalena and in it will be the president of Cruise Europe, Michael McCarthy; the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Tourism and Commerce of Cantabria, Eduardo Arasti; The president of the port of Santander, José Joaquín Martínez Sieso, and the Councilor for Tourism of the City of Santander, Gema Equal.
Previously regional meetings will be held that will group representatives from different areas: Iceland, Norway and Faroe; the Baltic; United Kingdom and Ireland and the West Coast of Europe.
Within Cruise Europe, different presentations and activities will also be developed, in which companies specialized in cruises will discuss aspects such as the current state of the sector in northern Europe, challenges in the planning of itineraries and the expectations and needs of cruise operators of medium ships, among other aspects. Among the speakers will be outstanding representatives of the sector, such as the president of Pullmantur, Jorge Vilches; The director of Operations of Tui Cruises, Tine Nathalie Oelmann, and responsible for large international cruise operators such as Holland America Line, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Carnival UK and noble Caledonia.
Cruise Europe is also going to be a magnificent opportunity to show the potential of Cantabria and Santander as cruise destinations, and for this different visits to the region and its capital have been designed.
In 2014, 15,000 cruise passengers arrived at the port, and the objective is to enhance Santander as a preferential destination within northern Spain, to which the presence of the Botín Center and the actions that are being made throughout the maritime front of the city will contribute , as well as the projects of the cultural ring.