MIAMI, December 4, 2018. Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest leisure travel company, today announced an agreement with the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife following the extraordinary Board of Directors meeting chaired by Mr. Pedro Suárez López de Vergara, to become the first concessionaire to operate the new cruise terminal in the Canary Islands and Mid-Atlantic.
Opened in 2016 during the Seatrade Cruise Med conference held in Tenerife, the terminal offers passengers a pleasant experience and state-of-the-art services. It is also equipped to receive the latest generation of eco-friendly cruise ships powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), the cleanest fossil fuel in the world. In December, the terminal will welcome the AIDAnova, from the German company AIDA Cruises, on its maiden voyage as the first LNG-powered cruise ship both in port and at sea.
With 617,987 passengers in 2017 alone, Santa Cruz de Tenerife is one of the busiest cruise ports in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago of seven islands between the coasts of Africa and Spain, and the first to attract an investment of this magnitude from the world's largest cruise line. The Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority, a member of CLIA, is an active member of MedCruise, the world's leading cruise port association, and has been a founding member of Cruises Atlantic Islands since 1994.
Carnival Corporation also manages two other cruise terminals in Spain: the recently opened Helix and Palacruceros, both in the Port of Barcelona.
So far this year, seven cruise lines belonging to Carnival Corporation have called at Tenerife: AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, and P&O Cruises UK. Carnival Corporation expects to reach more than 300,000 passengers during 2018 – half of all cruise passenger visits – with 130 calls by 31 ships from the company's various cruise lines.
“Carnival Corporation has long been a valued partner of the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Canary Islands, and we are confident that it will be a wonderful operator of our newly built cruise port,” said Pedro Suárez López de Vergara, President of the Santa Cruz de Tenerife Port Authority. “Thanks in large part to Carnival Corporation ships, in 2018 the cruise market generated an economic impact of €24 million (US$27.1 million) for the port and the city of Santa Cruz, reflecting an increase of €6 million over the previous season. We look forward to continuing to share our beautiful island with passengers arriving through this cruise terminal,” he said.
The Port Authority of Tenerife welcomes this long-term agreement with the idea of extending its benefits to its other ports: Santa Cruz de La Palma, San Sebastián de la Gomera, La Estaca in El Hierro and Los Cristianos in Tenerife.
The president added: “Our ports are successful in the cruise sector; last year we received nearly 1 million passengers and we are confident that we will exceed this figure by 2% during 2018. We expect that this new relationship will boost business in the region.”.
Passengers traveling with any of Carnival Corporation's cruise lines and visiting Tenerife can benefit from a wide variety of excursions on the island, including whale and dolphin watching, visits to the historic district of La Laguna, the only Canary Island city declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as exploring various natural attractions such as the Gardens of the Orotava Valley, the Anaga Biosphere Reserve, and Teide National Park, Spain's highest peak, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“Both this concession and our ongoing investment are part of a broader strategy to continue developing the cruise industry in the Canary Islands for the long term,” said Giora Israel, Senior Vice President of Global Port and Destination Development at Carnival Corporation. “Our passion is to provide the best possible experience for our guests, and Tenerife is an extremely popular destination that offers something for everyone, including history, beautiful beaches, exotic gardens, unique crafts, and memorable cuisine. We are very excited about the prospect of providing our guests who pass through the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife with a great experience, as well as expanding our relationships with our friends in Tenerife,” she concluded.
The Santa Cruz de Tenerife terminal will be the first port in the Canary Islands to receive Carnival Corporation's new class of next-generation eco-friendly cruise ships, powered by LNG both in port and at sea. The company currently has a total of 11 ships with this technology under construction for five of its nine cruise lines. The first will be the AIDAnova, which will call at Tenerife on December 18, 2018, during its inaugural cruise.
In addition to having a pioneering fleet using LNG, the company also leads the industry with another unprecedented innovation: the implementation of the Advanced Air Quality System (AAQS), a highly efficient system for the small spaces of a ship. Carnival Corporation has equipped 70 ships in its fleet with this system, which significantly improves air emissions.
With Santa Cruz de Tenerife, there are now 8 ports and terminals in which Carnival Corporation and its shipping companies operate:
- Barcelona (Helix & Palacruceros terminals) in Spain
- Savona in Italy
- Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic
- Mayan Gate in Cozumel, Mexico
- The Grand Turk Cruise Center in the Turks and Caicos Islands
- Mahogany Bay in Roatan, Honduras
- Long Beach, California
Carnival Corporation also operates two private destinations in the Caribbean, Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay, and has an agreement with Dubai to operate two more cruise terminals in the future. In addition, through a joint venture, Carnival Corporation operates the Marseille terminal in France 50/50 with MSC Cruises.
