The historic Hotel Santa Catalina in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria hosted the fourteenth Cruise Excellence Awards Gala, a special edition that CruisesNews Media Group wished to dedicate to the resilience and subsequent reactivation of the tourist sector that has been hardest hit by the pandemic.
The event brought together the main cruise line executives, as well as cruise tour operators, cruise lines, ports and destinations, travel agents, collaborators, professionals, entrepreneurs and suppliers of the sector, as well as professionals from Las Palmas and the Canary Islands.
During an entertaining gala directed and presented by the comedian and showman, Mr. Corrales, and enlivened by the percussion group Volcandrum of Memvus Arte and the acrobats Lena Delaire and her Pole dance show and Alba Muñoz with her show “Parada de Manos”, 15 awards were presented in recognition of different milestones in the reactivation of cruise tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, given the circumstances, there were no votes or categories, but there were awards for effort, resilience, courage and bravery in restoring an industry that at the beginning of the pandemic was at its best moment in its history. The award winners have stood out for resisting and promoting the reactivation of the sector. Several companies chose the Canary Islands as their first destination to start operating again, many companies have continued to inaugurate ships while others have developed protocols that served as a model for the industry.
The award winners at this special gala were:
- Princess Cruises
- The shipping agents, represented by the Spanish Association of Shipping Agents
- Richard Fain CEO and Chairman of Royal Caribbean Group
- The travel agencies, represented by the Canary Islands Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators.
- TUI Cruises
- Celebrity Cruises
- Government of Canary Islands
- MSC Cruises
- Costa Cruises
- Hapag Lloyd
- Silversea Cruises
- Norwegian Cruise Line
- Mystic Cruises
- The Port Authority of Las Palmas
- The Port Authority of Tenerife.
- Juan Francisco Martín Naranjo, Commercial Director of the Las Palmas Port Authority.
The choice of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is due, among other considerations, to the step forward taken in the summer of 2020 with the creation and approval of the first sanitary protocols that allowed cruises to start receiving cruises again in October 2020 after seven months of inactivity, being the first Spanish port to resume activity.
This edition, promoted and sponsored by the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Las Palmas City Council, Tourism of the Canary Islands, Tourism of Gran Canaria, was also sponsored by Puertos del Estado and Global Ports Holding.
