“For the coming days Malta is the European Capital of Culture, but also the world’s capital of cruising,” said Airam Diaz Pastor, president of MedCruise, at the opening of the association’s 52nd general assembly in Valletta on May 23. Pastor also serves as the commercial director for the Port of Tenerife,

With some 130 people in attendance, the assembly represented member ports, tour operators and cruise lines coming together to discuss the industry in the Mediterranean and its adjacent seas.

“Our meeting is a major event in the Mediterranean Sea,” Pastor added, “and in the whole industry, bringing together ports and cruise lines from Europe and the United States.

“Today, the Mediterranean is the world’s second largest cruise destination, and we expect to grow to some 25 million passengers over the next 10 years.”

Pastor continued: “Our association has been growing fast these years, to reach over 100 members and partners. And the choice of Valletta to host our assembly is appropriate as the European Capital of Culture for 2018.

“Malta is a unique destination, long considered to be a microcosm of Mediterranean, with 7,000 years of recorded history.”

This year, Valletta is expecting to set a new traffic record, reaching over 770,000 cruise passengers.

Konrad Mizzi, the minister of tourism for Malta, commented in a prepared statement: “Cruising not only impacts ports, it provides a lot of business and activity to the whole country of Malta. It gives us the opportunity to showcase what the Maltese island stands for. The few hours that are spent ashore by those visitors are the perfect advertising for our destination.”

Valletta also plays an important role in MedCruise history as one of the founding members of MedCruise, according to Stephen Xuereb, Valletta Cruise Port CEO and Globals Port Holdings (GPH) COO.

“The port director of Malta served as the first chairman of MedCruise,” noted Emre Sayin, CEO of GPH. “MedCruise not only promotes cruising all around the Mediterranean Sea; but it also allows all its members to meet together and to conclude partnerships and businesses, and to share knowledge and experiences.”

With now 14 ports under their management, including 12 in Mediterranean, GPH is the world’s largest cruise port operator.

Carlo Micallef, deputy CEO and chief marketing officer at the Malta Tourism Office, noted that Malta has been achieving record results in inbound tourism and cruises to Malta and Gozo, and said cruise calls are generating invaluable exposure for the islands and contributing to its success in tourism.

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