News

Although the summer holiday season is drawing to a close, a new cruise record was set in the port of Marseille-Fos over the weekend of 12 and 13 September.  A total of 11 cruise ships were in port with a total of 36,000 passengers. For 14,000 passengers Marseille was their port of arrival or departure.  For the remaining 22,000 passengers Marseille was one of the ports of call on their cruise.

Six companies were represented:  Celebrity Cruises, Costa Croisières, Princess Cruises, Croisières de France, MSC Croisières and Windstar Cruises.

Marseille is the fifth Mediterranean port and has now beaten its 9 August 2015 record of when seven cruise ships were in port with a total of 21,000 passengers. 

The "Club de la Croisière Marseille-Provence", set up by the Port Authority and the Chamber of Commerce to assist in the promotion and development of the cruise business in Marseille, considers that the cruises are a flagship industry in the local economy.  With seven out of ten passengers confirming that they would like to return to Marseille one day, the cruise industry brings direct economic benefits to local transport, tourism and business.  It is estimated that a record weekend can generate revenue of over 5 million Euros for the region.

Marseille’s port authority has increased its investment in the cruise industry over the last decade.  In 2014, activity increased by 10.4% with the number of passengers rising tto 1.311 million.  The Club de la Croisière is confident that in 2015, the number of cruise passengers will rise to 1.5 million for a total of 465 calls, 68 vessels and 30 cruise companies.

Source:  Franck André, the "Antenne".