The meeting will begin tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, and will continue until Thursday, April 30.
Cruise Europe 's annual conference will bring together nearly one hundred participants in Santander, representing ports, cruise lines, and operators from Northern Europe. Among the members of this international organization, which includes more than one hundred ports in Northern and Western Europe, are the ports of Lisbon, Vigo, Santander, Bilbao, Brest, Le Havre, Dover, Southampton, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Malmö, Riga, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki, among others.
Between tomorrow, Tuesday, April 28, and Thursday, April 30, Santander will become the venue for this meeting, which will include sectoral and regional meetings and discussions on aspects related to the cruise industry in Northern Europe.
The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday the 29th at the Magdalena Palace and will be attended by the president of Cruise Europe, Michael McCarthy; the Minister of Innovation, Industry, Tourism and Trade of Cantabria, Eduardo Arasti; the president of the Port of Santander, José Joaquín Martínez Sieso, and the Councillor for Tourism of the City of Santander, Gema Igual.
Previously, on Tuesday the 28th, regional meetings will be held bringing together representatives from different areas: Iceland, Norway and the Faroe Islands; the Baltic; the United Kingdom and Ireland and the west coast of Europe.
Cruise Europe will also feature various presentations and activities, in which cruise companies will discuss topics such as the current state of the sector in Northern Europe, challenges in itinerary planning, and the expectations and needs of mid-sized cruise ship operators, among other issues. Speakers will include prominent industry representatives such as Jorge Vilches, President of Pullmantur; Tine Nathalie Oelmann, Chief Operating Officer of TUI Cruises; and executives from major international cruise operators such as Holland America Line, Cruise & Maritime Voyages, Carnival UK, and Noble Caledonia.
Cruise Europe will also be a magnificent opportunity to showcase the potential of Cantabria and Santander as cruise destinations, and for this purpose, different tours of the region and its capital have been designed.
In 2014, 15,000 cruise passengers arrived at the Port, and the goal is to promote Santander as a preferred destination in northern Spain, which will be aided by the presence of the Botín Centre and the actions being carried out along the entire waterfront of the city, as well as the cultural ring projects.
