Lisbon, with its deep water moorings and coherent cruise tourism offer, welcomed 500,872 passengers in 2014 who between them spent an estimated €92 million in the city.
Portimão received 20,000 passengers in 2013 and sees the possibility of 250,000 a year if ever the port is modernised so the city can accept larger ships.
The Lisbon figures are part of a study by the Tourism Observatory of Lisbon in conjunction with the Port of Lisbon and have been released to coincide with Lisbon Cruise Day, an initiative that brings together various companies related to cruise tourism and its impact on the city.
According to the study, each cruise passenger spent an average of €183 in Lisbon, "a value that is nearly double that of 2013 (€97)."
The Port of Lisbon management stressed that "these figures do not include the direct and indirect employment generated, nor the service benefits associated with the cruise business, such as money spent by passengers on excursions, or pre and post cruise hotel stays and airfares.”
The customer profile is that of a young, well-heeled crowd with an average age of 47.3 years, 51% with university degrees and 86.8% on their first cruise.
The main reasons for choosing a cruise holiday were 'entertainment, socialising and the opportunity to visit Lisbon and other cities where the cruise ship docked.'
On a scale of 1 to 10, the average degree of satisfaction with a visit Lisbon was 9.63%, "significant increase compared to 7.7% in 2013."
In July 2014 The Port Authority of Sines and the Algarve awarded the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) the contract to undertake a study to 'look at ways to improve the maritime access to the port of Portimão.'
The study, a delaying tactic, has yet to be delivered so no development work has been commissioned.
In August 2013, Economy Minister Pires de Lima announced that over four years approximately €10 million would be invested in the port of Portimão. Not a cent has been spent. Previously, in a relatively sober moment, he had promised an urgent €10 million to dredge the harbour: this he referred to as the equivalent of a 'no brainer.'
"The €10 million will come for work which is necessary and which partly is provided from the Community Support budget (€3 million) to give this port of all the capabilities from a tourist point of view, including, of course, the tug," said the minister at the start of a long, slow motion backslide.
The tug for the Algarve's ports promptly was cancelled.
A government working group in January 2014 listed the country’s top 30 infrastructure priorities. The ‘improvement of the maritime access and facilities at the ports of Portimão and Faro (Investment €55 million)’ was number 20, one of just two projects for the Algarve.
In 2015, the administration of the ports of Sines and the Algarve said it planned to invest €21.5 million this year, €18.8 of it in Sines, again leaving Portimão the poor sister sharing the crumbs with Faro.
In summary, the obvious case for spending money on upgrading the dock facilities in Portimão has become a highly political football to be kicked around the playground while Lisbon rakes in the cruise tourist euros.
The government again is putting the Algarve firmly in its place at the back of the queue while Portimão council staggers under a mountain of debt, its remaining traders mostly insolvent and its ratepayers fed up with paying the cost of former mayor Manuel da Luz’s reckless spending spree that made the Sultan if Brunei’s brother look parsimonious.
This shameful mess is not a good example of modern Portugal embracing tourism, managing successful projects, designing and executing the installation of inspired infrastructure and investing in the future of the once proud city of Portimão.
Leadership is lacking as is any political desire in Lisbon to do more than make the usual hollow promises to the unruly Algarve.
Whether Portimão is able to sell the dock area to a commercial partner, or is prohibited from doing so, has not yet been made clear but if this is possible, mayor Isilda Gomes must surely be looking at this option instead of suffering in silence as the same old promises from Lisbon come and go.
