Portimão’s cruise terminal - another five years allowed for an environmental study

Paul Rees 02 February 2018

The Portuguese Sea Minister, Ana Paula Vitorino, said that growth at Portimão’s cruise terminal was 53% higher than last year as the city welcomed 71 cruise ships and around 30,000 passengers.

The entity that runs the Algarve’s ports is still the one based in Sines as this management function has yet to be returned to local control despite plans to do so.

The Ports of the Algarve and Sines administration said the growth at Portimão’s cruise terminal shows that investment in the port and local tourism facilities is paying off.

The city has a target of raising the number of cruise ships from 50 to 190, as well as accommodated longer ships but this depends on dredging the Arade river and extending the quayside.

The government finally agreed that €17.5 million will be channelled into making Portimão into a destination that can handle these larger ships – this is after years of talking about the possibility. Last November, the government and the EU stated they were to fund this redevelopment to boost the city’s cruise passenger numbers to 180,000 per year by 2030 and said the work will be completed by July 2020. (HERE)

One of the problems has been the Ports of the Algarve and Sines administration that has concentrated on developing Sines as an import/export hub while denying Portimão the funds with which to develop and expand.

The administrators of the Ports of Sines and the Algarve are up to their old delaying tactics by launching a public tender to carry out an 'environmental impact study' for the project to dredge and widen the Arade to accept larger ships.

The €150,000 on offer is to fund a study that has a full five years within which to report its findings, such is the urgency displayed in the tender document.

Either the completion date of 'July 2020' is overly ambitious or the environmental impact study is peripheral to the project: either way, expect more delays.

Comments

+1 #7 Jack Reacher 2018-02-06 16:33

You may embrace cruise tourism now..but before long the ships will be discharging thousands of people in one go. Europe is incapable of handling a jumbo jet of chinese tourists..now imagine a cruise ship load. Look at the bigger picture first and ask yourselves what would tourists do in Portimao...they don't sunbathe.

-1 #6 Peter Booker 2018-02-05 08:59

I shudder at the prospect of 30 aeroplanes arriving at once. Thank heaven that Tavira is completely inaccessible to the cruise trade.

0 #5 mj1 2018-02-04 20:03

modern cruise ships need 7 mts or more deep harbours, a cruise ship with 4000 passengers on board is like having 30 planes arrive in your city at once, spending money going on tours etc

0 #4 mj1 2018-02-04 20:00

have suggested for many years that lagos would be good with a pontoon landing area and also villa real...when i suggest they say good idea but it requires energy and creativity to get things done in Algarve, sadly two things missing in most govt departments

0 #3 Denby 2018-02-04 11:05

Hopefully, someone with power in the Government will look closely at this and allow cruise ships to dock somewhere in the Algarve. Faro may be a good choice from a tourism point of view, as there is the historical fortress with Roman and Moorish architecture to view.

+1 #2 Mr John 2018-02-03 22:06

Quoting mj1:

went to conference in 2009 re nautical tourism and esp cruise industry for portimao, so 9 years later it has been decided to spend another 5 years to do a study, no doubt followed by years of further delay and then building it of course will take time..so we can expect the opening in what erm 2040?
amazing how quickly things happen when its white elephant football stadiums in faro or car race tracks which promised so much

I'll be dead by then,,,

+1 #1 mj1 2018-02-02 21:04

went to conference in 2009 re nautical tourism and esp cruise industry for portimao, so 9 years later it has been decided to spend another 5 years to do a study, no doubt followed by years of further delay and then building it of course will take time..so we can expect the opening in what erm 2040?
amazing how quickly things happen when its white elephant football stadiums in faro or car race tracks which promised so much

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