Arrecife has started the new cruise season with the arrival of the MS Sirena. This ocean liner docked in the capital of Lanzarote on Wednesday afternoon, with "high-end" tourism and coming from the southern peninsula. This type of tourism, which begins its strongest stage in the Canary Islands, has figures that "invite optimism and reflect the recovery of tourism."
According to the forecasts of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, with the requests of the shipping companies, the port of Arrecife will experience the largest increase in dockings, compared to the figures before the COVID pandemic. The capital of the region has scheduled 244 calls this new season, compared to the 232 registered in the pre-covid stage.
The mayor of Arrecife, and member of the Board of Directors of the Port Authority of Las Palmas, Yonathan de León Machín, has advanced that the city has launched a major improvement of port facilities, especially those intended for the reception of cruise tourism.
For the mayor, these works are joined, in a planned manner, with the modernization of the Arrecife seafront with the execution of several municipal works. Several of these works, such as the transformations of Canalejas, Valls de la Torre and Manolo Millares streets, will be completed this fall, and others for the winter of 2024, with the pedestrianization of a section of Avenida Fred Olsen, next to El Reducto, a beach very frequented in winter by cruise passengers arriving at the port of Arrecife.
Mayor Yonathan de León, has recalled that the works to expand the cruise ship dock are currently underway, with an investment of almost 12 million euros, and the imminent start of the works for the construction of the new passenger terminal in the cruise ship dock of Arrecife is planned, thanks to an administrative concession from the Port Authority.
14,000 people on the Puente de Los Dolores
Within the forecasts, for September 16, coinciding with the Puente de Los Dolores on the island of Lanzarote, the calls of two large cruise ships are scheduled, with more than 14,000 people, including tourists and crew. The Anthem of the Seas, and the MSC Virtuosa will show off their 16 decks, each, on the coast of Arrecife. This last large cruise ship has scheduled its use, after the circuit through the Canary Islands, as a cruise hotel in the Formula 1, in the week of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Aby Dhabi 2023 Grand Prix, from November 24 to 26 next.
The Councilor for Tourism and Commerce, Eli Merino, who has among her objectives for this mandate to relaunch the capital of the island as the epicenter of leisure, shopping and healthy living, has stressed that cruise tourism energizes the city, helps the economy, and activates the commercial and hotel sector with its calls.
For the Councilor for Tourism and Commerce, Eli Merino, "it is important that, this boom in calls for the new season, nearly half, 112, are scheduled before the end of the year, which will allow hospitality, leisure, commercial, transport and excursion companies to have a great economic complement in this next four-month period."
