Uruguay 2023/24 cruise season set to break records; port incentives for 2024/25 cruise season — MercoPress

Uruguay 2023/24 cruise season sets record; port incentives offered for 2024/25 cruise season

A busy cruise ship day in Punta del Este

Uruguay will reduce cruise port tariffs by 20% for the upcoming 2024/25 season and has announced further infrastructure development in Maldonado and large yacht marinas in Puerto del Carmelo and Colonia, opposite Buenos Aires.

The news was announced at the 10th Regional Conference on Cruise and River Tourism, held in the international seaside resort of Punta del Este, where the Uruguayan authorities also released data for the 2023/24 cruise season, with a total of 187 cruise ships calling and 324,000 tourists arriving in Montevideo and Maldonado, with an estimated injection of approximately US$17.5 million into the local economy.

“We look forward to developing and implementing strategies that will promote effective, sustainable and environmentally friendly growth of tourism activities,” said Uruguayan Tourism Minister Eduardo Sanguinetti.

However, despite the “very good numbers”, he admitted that the main challenge lies in “increasing the number of cruise ships and tourists arriving in our country, we need to increase the number of stops of ships, the number of day and overnight passengers, and improve the quality of the service”.

Daniel Loureiro, a member of the Uruguayan Ports Authority, stressed that cruise tourism is a regional market that does not visit ports in a certain country but rather in a region, which means that “our ports must develop and offer the best possible services while taking into account a harmonious relationship with technological and environmental challenges.”

Loureiro also mentioned regional competitiveness, since, although it was not mentioned during the talks, it is known that the Port of Buenos Aires will reduce by half the cost of docking for cruise ships ahead of the upcoming season.

Also attending the regional meeting were Chilean Vice Minister of Tourism Veronica Pardo Lagos, Brazilian Tourism Board Diplomatic Advisor Heitor Kadri, Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Regional Director Marco Ferraz, and representatives of Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises Argentina.