The ten-hour stopover today by the Norwegian cruise ship "MS Fram," carrying 318 passengers, marks the start of the best cruise season the port of Gijón has ever seen. This was announced yesterday by the general manager of El Musel, José Luis Barettino Coloma, who indicated that they have already confirmed the arrival of 19 ships through early November, bringing 33,132 passengers. This represents a 102% increase in the number of passengers and a 46% increase in the number of port calls compared to last year.
Of the 33,132 passengers arriving at El Musel this season, the vast majority will come aboard just eight ships: seven from the American cruise line Royal Caribbean and one from the Norwegian Cruise Line. Each of these mega-cruise ships will carry between 3,114 passengers (the smallest) and 4,370 passengers (the largest).
“2016 is shaping up to be a good year for the Port of Gijón, for Gijón, and for Asturias,” Barettino stated, referring to the 19 confirmed cruise ship calls, compared to 10 last year. The port director considered the influx of tourists brought by cruise ships “very important for the region,” given their spending both in the city and on excursions to other Asturian destinations such as Oviedo, Covadonga, and Luanco.
He was less optimistic about the possibility of Gijón becoming a cruise terminal port, where cruise voyages begin or end. “That's extremely complex; in Spain, it practically only happens in Barcelona,” which is on the Mediterranean and has an international airport nearby. “These are things we can't even consider,” he added.
Of the approximately 15,000 cruise ship passengers who arrived at El Musel last year, the Union of Merchants offered information about shops in the city center to 4,500 of them at the tourist information point that they set up with each cruise ship.
