The port of Santander will receive two new cruise ships on October 7th and 15th: the “Hanseatic Nature” and the “Spirit of Adventure,” respectively. Both vessels, considered luxury ships, will remain in the port facilities for approximately ten hours.
For the president of the Port Authority of Santander (APS), Francisco Martín, this is “a symptom” of the recovery of cruise tourism, “a high-spending industry” that contributes “to the deseasonalization of tourism”.
Martín assured that the APS “will continue working to recover and even surpass pre-pandemic cruise traffic” and highlighted “the joint work” of the different administrations each time a stopover takes place.
In this regard, the Regional Minister for Industry, Tourism, Innovation, Transport, and Trade, Javier López Marcano, highlighted the alliance formed by the Port Authority of Santander (APS), the Government of Cantabria, and the Santander City Council. Operating under the Santander Cruise Deluxe brand, the alliance aims to boost this type of traffic, establishing Santander as a leading cruise port on the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. Marcano emphasized the efforts being made to attract a significant portion of the approximately 200 cruise ships that sail annually through the Bay of Biscay, most of which originate from or are destined for the port of Southampton, southwest of London.
Hanseatic Nature
This ship, consigned by Marmetsa and owned by the shipping company Hapag Lloyd, will visit Santander on October 7th with 170 passengers and 166 crew members on board.
The cruise ship, built in 2019, will enter the port at eight in the morning, coming from the Guernsey islands and is scheduled to leave at five in the afternoon bound for the Portuguese port of Leixões.
Spirit of Adventure
This ship, from the British shipping company Saga and consigned by Pérez y Cía, will dock in the Cantabrian port on October 15, coming from the French port of Le Verdon and bound for the port of Leixões.
The ship, measuring 236 meters in length and 31.2 meters in beam, was launched from the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany last year. Its maximum capacity of 1,000 passengers has been reduced to a maximum of 800 due to COVID-19 restrictions, and it will have a crew of 550. It is a luxury vessel and offers some of the largest suites in the industry.
