The Port Authority of Las Palmas (APLP) has closed, in accordance with the terms, the deadline for receiving bids for the tender for the construction and operation, under a public domain concession, of the cruise passenger terminals of the ports of Las Palmas, Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario, called at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the APLP on December 16, 2020, with two registrations: the offer of the UTE Las Palmas Cruise Terminal and the offer of Global Ports Canary Islands.
The president of the APLP, Luis Ibarra, expressed his satisfaction with the business response to the tender and the competition it has generated. “The number of bids received demonstrates the business interest in our ports and the dynamism of their traffic and economies.”.
The competition process is now continuing with the goal of awarding the contract to one of the two submitted bids by the end of the year.
The Las Palmas Cruise Terminal joint venture is formed by Agencia Pérez y CIA. SL and Agunsa Europa SA.
Global Ports Canary Islands SL, for its part, is a ZEC company formed by Global Ports Holding Plc. (London Stock Exchange) and associated with the Canary Islands port operator SEPCAN (Servicios Portuarios Canarios SL).
The high volume of passengers, as well as the increase in the size of the ships and the implementation of new environmental, safety, etc. regulations, motivated the call for this tender, by the Port Authority of Las Palmas, to develop a specialized management of cruises under the conditions of service quality and safety required by the cruise industry itself and the level of the tourist offer of the Canary Islands.
Global cruise traffic has maintained a historical growth trend. In the last decade, excluding 2020, the total number of passengers has increased by 60 percent, reaching nearly 30 million passengers annually.
In this context, cruise traffic in the Canary Islands, during the winter season and with a Central European cruise passenger profile, has shown even greater growth, doubling in the last ten years to exceed 2.5 million passengers in 2019.
In the case of the Ports of Las Palmas, traffic has also doubled in the last decade, going from 668,500 cruise passengers in 2010 to 1,330,000 passengers in 2019.
Furthermore, it is worth remembering that the Canary Islands and the home port of Las Palmas led the reactivation of cruise traffic in Europe during the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic through a pilot test whose success has allowed the return of cruises to the Mediterranean and the Baltic since this June.
TUI Cruises began operations on November 5, 2020, with its flagship, the 'Mein Schiff 2'. This ship was subsequently joined by the 'Europa 2', from Happag-Lloyds; the 'Aida Perla', from Aida Cruises; the 'Mein Schiff 1', from TUI Cruises; the 'Aida Mar', from Aida Cruises; and the 'World Voyager', from Mystic-Nicko Cruises. These ships have been operating in Canary Island waters for over six months, following a health and safety protocol that has served as a model for the cruise industry in other European ports.
The Port of Las Palmas is one of the leading ports in the Atlantic Islands area in terms of passenger numbers handled, especially in home port traffic, which in turn is the type of operation that entails the greatest demands on infrastructure, services, facilities and land/air connections.
