ARCHIVED - First cruise ship for 15 months will dock in Valencia on June 27
Cruise ship tourism in Valencia city on the Costa Blanca has lost an estimated €70 million since a ban on cruise ships was imposed on June 23, 2020.
TUI Cruises ship 'Mein Schiff 2' will return to the Port of Valencia on June 27 and become the first ship of its kind to dock in the city since March 8, 2020.
According to the Port Authority of Valencia (APV), Mein Shiff 2 will come from Alicante Port before setting sail from Valencia to Barcelona.
This is great news for the port, which had 205 stopovers and welcomed 420,000 travellers in 2019, with hopes to reach 500,000 tourists by 2023.
But the APV has warned the lifting of the ban will not see the sudden return of cruise liners as shipping companies will first have to reset their itineraries, hire staff, stock up on supplies and sell the cabin reservations.
The APV also explained that the ships have to be repositioned, since most of them are in Israel, so they still have to return to the west Mediterranean, although "the intentions of the shipping companies are to return to a return to normality as soon as possible".
"It will take the ships a few weeks to reach Valencia again," said the port authority, adding that their "imminent return" is vital as the absence of the liners has cost the sector in the city tens of millions of euros.