TRIESTE – Trieste and Monfalcone are among the top ten ports in the Italian ranking drawn up for passenger traffic. The official source is the Italian Cruise Watch 2021, a tool created by the Risposte Turismo network, which was previewed just a few days before the Italian Cruise Day, scheduled for October 29 in Liguria.
The Italian report on the state of cruise traffic sees the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in the fifth position behind Liguria, Lazio, Sicily and Puglia. About 240 thousand passengers arrived on the region’s coasts in this year of the restart following the explosion of the Covid 19 pandemic and, therefore, the inevitable collapse that occurred for the entire sector last year. On the other hand, according to Italian Cruise Watch, there is an overall 325% increase in the number of visitors transported thanks to cruises until the end of 2021: the total number of passengers is 2.7 million.
More specifically, Trieste, the regional capital, is placed in seventh place among Italian ports of call with 140,000 arrivals. Immediately behind in eighth place is nearby Monfalcone, which collects 100,000 passengers. Portorosega’s prospects for the future are now broader, considering its entry by right into the top ten ports for cruise ships.
At present, the entire cruise sector shows to be in evident recovery throughout the country: even the ship touches mark an increase of 293% compared to 2020. The investments planned between 2022 and 2024, for a total of 821 million euros, three times the value compared to the last three years for all Italian ports. Now particular attention will also be reserved to the new cruise terminals of Bari, Porto Empedocle, Palermo, Messina and Trapani.
Meanwhile, during the weekend, Monfalcone also hosted the second Costa ship that was due to call Trieste. The risks presented by the announced demonstrations against the Green Pass obligation convinced the company to move the call.
Costa was present in Monfalcone together with MSC ships, which since July have chosen the Friuli Venezia Giulia port of call instead of Venice, blocked due to the decree on “big ships”.
The significant number of buffers to be carried out in two days for passengers to be boarded also put the port of call under pressure. A medical hub has been set up to meet this need at the nearby airport of Ronchi dei Legionari.