Costa officially opened its new Palacruceros cruise terminal on Tuesday with an inaugural ceremony in Barcelona. The ceremony was attended by national and local authorities including Jordi Valls, chairman of the Port of Barcelona; Pier Luigi Foschi, Costa Crociere chairman and CEO; Gianni Onorato, president of Costa Crociere; and Luis Grau, general manager of Costa Cruceros Spain. Inaugural festivities concluded with a concert by the singer Soraya and a special fireworks presentation. "Our objective with the new terminal is to confirm our leadership in the port and in Spain, guaranteeing excellent services for all our guests stopping off in Barcelona," Foschi said. "As in Savona, the philosophy guiding the Palacruceros concept is to offer maximum efficiency and comfort to our cruise ship guests -- we want them to feel as if they are on holiday from the moment they enter the new terminal."
The new Palacruceros terminal occupies a nearly 6,000-square-foot stretch of the Muelle Adosado quay. The Port of Barcelona granted a 25-year concession on the area to Costa, which is now equipped to accommodate cruise ships of all tonnage, length and capacity, including the largest currently in service (over 140,000 tons). The Italian company has invested approximately 12 million Euros in the new terminal for preferential use by Costa and other companies in the Carnival Corp. group. The new terminal was built on four levels, covering a total area of approximately 107,000 square feet. The architecture is characterized by light and glazed surfaces. Passenger safety and protection for the environment are just two of the factors that were given priority during the development of the project. Among the facilities in the terminal are a children's club, an Internet café, a shopping area, a VIP lounge and a cafeteria and terrace with views. Palacruceros will now be the site of Costa's office in Barcelona, which features 20 employees. In 2006, Costa featured around 80 calls in Barcelona, bringing a total of over 200,000 guests. The Italian company is expecting its local traffic to increase substantially during 2007, with 126 planned cruise operations and approximately 330,000 guests (65 percent more than in 2006).
The 2,720-passenger Costa Fortuna and 3,000-passenger Costa Concordia will offer weekly departures this summer from the terminal. In 2007, Carnival Corp. companies anticipate 251 cruise operations in Barcelona, which amount to over 500,000 passengers in total. According to the European Cruise Council, each passenger that visits a Spanish port generates an average expenditure of nearly 45 Euros per passenger visit. As such, in 2007, Costa's guests will generate a forecasted economic benefit for Barcelona of almost 15 million Euros. Barcelona has forecasted a total of 1.6 million cruisers in 2007, with more than 20 percent coming from Costa). For more information, call 800-GO-COSTA or visit http://www.costacruises.com/.
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About the author: Eric Lam is a Cruise Consultant of Best Cruise Spot LLC, www.bestcruisespot.com
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