The Port of Cádiz Bay is scheduled to receive 13 cruise ship calls this week, with a capacity for 21,529 tourists and 8,396 crew members. For the first time this year, there will be a cruise ship arriving daily, Monday through Sunday. On one day, three cruise ships will be in port simultaneously, carrying nearly 14,000 passengers and crew, and on another, up to five cruise ships will be in port at the same time. This five-ship arrival will bring 9,956 passengers and 3,947 crew members.
The start of the peak cruise season coincides with the launch of the feasibility study to establish Cádiz as a homeport, a project on which PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has already begun. The first working meetings, attended by representatives of all stakeholders, took place at the end of last week.
In this first phase of the study, the consultant, together with the Port Authority, will hold sector-specific meetings with key stakeholders to analyze the current situation of the Port of Cádiz and its surrounding area. This information will be supplemented by fieldwork comparing the Port of Cádiz's starting point with that of other ports that have successfully become home ports. Simultaneously, PwC will initiate contact with shipping companies operating in the Port of Cádiz to gauge their perceptions and the level of interest they would show if Cádiz were to become a home port.
These three parts will determine the precise analysis of the current situation and the key success factors for becoming a homeport. The study will also include an economic impact analysis quantifying the repercussions that the homeport's activity would have on the surrounding area.
With all this information, an action plan will be drawn up, with a timetable, which will set the strategy to achieve the objective.
