Two cruise ships dock in Alicante

TWO cruise ships docked in the port of Alicante on Monday, both from P&O Cruises.

The ship Ventura docked at Pier 14 at 8am arriving from the port of Arrecife on Lanzarote, with 3,210 passengers and a crew of 1,200, joining the Britannia that had docked an hour earlier with its 4,324 passengers and a crew of 1,398 people.

The double delight in the port of Alicante comes after the Euro Weekly News reported last week that the number of cruise passengers arriving in Alicante up to the end of August this year is 87 per cent more than during the same period last year with the port receiving 13,409 passengers in the first eight months of the year.

Global demand for cruises grew by 3.4 per cent in 2014 according to the latest study by the International Association of Cruise Lines (CLIA). According to this analysis, in the last 10 years the number of cruise passengers has increased by 68 per cent.

The cruise industry contributed to the global economy with €105 billion for 2014, up 1.7 per cent from a year ago, with 939,232 full-time employees in the industry worldwide.