Lisbon should receive 320 cruise ships this year
Capital will have almost triple the number of vessels it had in 2017 passing through Santa Apolónia.
The number of ships docking in the capital continues to increase. Lisbon should receive 320 cruise ships this year, 10 more than in 2019, according to the International Association of Cruise Companies (CLIA), and almost triple the number in 2017, at the Cruise Terminal in Santa Apolónia. Five years ago, the city received less than half of the European cruises (115) it will receive in 2022 and was already the city that received the most cruises, according to a study by the European Transport and Environment Federation, released in 2019.
In 20 cities17, Lisbon ranks among the European cities most exposed to cruise ship cities. As accounts of this study showed that the ships that were boarded by the capital released 3, more than 5 times the 375 thousand motor vehicles that circulate daily in the city.
CLIA’s director for Europe, Marie-Caroline Laurent, told Lusa that she hopes to “eliminate all initiatives in ports” of call in Europe by 2030, through, among other measures, investment in electrification, already underway in some ports, and the adaptation of older ships. In the Port of Lisbon, however, the first phase of investment in electrification will only “be around 2024/2025”, with the objective being to “connect the ships, probably, in 2028”.
breakage in passengers
Unlike the number of ships, which grows, the number of passengers, which in 2019 was around 500,000, is expected to decrease to 450,000 this year. Despite the break, Marie-Caroline Laurent said that the prospects for the summer “are very good” and that the goal is “to get back to 2019 numbers by the end of the year”. She also pointed out that there is also the possibility of a Lisbon cruise – an apostate in the development of Porto Lisboa, in the sense of giving more possibilities to embark in Lisbon, since “there are more and more Portuguese people developing in taking cruises”.
“They can embark in Lisbon, take a tour of the Mediterranean, for example, where they know several countries, and return to Lisbon again”, he stressed.
