THE PORT OF TENERIFE EXTENDS ITS CRUISE SEASON A YEAR-ROUND

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1 Chapter 8 Cruises The Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife closed the year 2010 with 387 cruise ships and cruise ship travellers, 35 and 157,187 more than last year, which translates into positive increases of 10 and 27 per cent respectively. Port by port, the Santa Cruz de Tenerife installation received 536,331 tourists of this category (+26,7%) which arrived on the island on 253 cruisers (+14%); 186,558 cruise travellers arrived at the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma on 115 liners (+18,5%); San Sebastian de La Gomera received 18 cruisers with 16,590 tourists.

2 THE PORT OF TENERIFE EXTENDS ITS CRUISE SEASON A YEAR-ROUND The cruise season of the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife covered 2010 practically the year round. Since this port has been chosen by the company Iberocruceros as a call of its ship "Grand Voyager" for the trips that took place within the summer season, being Vigo the starting point. This fact meant a total of 23 calls from May to September. This was confirmed by the highest representatives of that firm to the delegation of Tenerife present at the Seatrade Miami held from 16th to 19th March and headed by the president of the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza. Thus, it had been taken a step forward in the strategy set by Rodríguez Zaragoza to extend cruise season a year-round in the port of Santa Cruz.. This achievement means an important step towards its execution. Other achievements. Pullmantur, Royal Caribbean-owned, confirmed nine calls of the ship "Zenith" at the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife during 2010 and announced weekly calls of another of its ships, the "Pacific Dream"- with capacity for 1,800 passengers- at this port facilities and at the port of Santa Cruz de La Palma, during October and November. The Seatrade was also the best opportunity to ratify that the fam trip, held in September 2009, began to provide satisfactory results. This initiative was basically a Fam tour in order to incorporate the islands into the routes of the major cruise lines located in Miami. To this end, a dozen of tour operators visited

3 the infrastructure of the ports for cruise ship traffic and the main tourist attractions of each island. In this sense, the cruise line Silversea Cruises, present at the familarization trip, confirmed to the president of the Ports of Tenerife the visit of its luxurious ship, "Prince Albert II, to the ports of Tenerife and San Sebastián de La Gomera.

4 12N: CRUISER APOTHEOSIS IN THE PORT OF SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE What happened last 12th November 2010 is already part of the landmarks related to the cruise ship traffic in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. In the mentioned date, our port received the visit of five cruise ships. Although it is not the first time this kind of event takes place, it did involve two records for the facilities: one, for the number of visitors, which reached 17,000; and a second one for the volume of the boats that arrived, with a total 467,658 gross register tonnage. It was a colossal day, not only in the size of the ships and the number of visitors, but also for other related figures which resulted in a memorable day for the city and the island. For example, 6,000 passengers went on excursions (18 were offered) in almost one hundred coaches hired for this purpose and hundreds of taxis which also offered the best of their services. The cruise passengers that decided to spend the day in the metropolitan area were able to taste a sample of typical products from the Canary Islands, wine and cheese, in the awnings

5 installed for this purpose, take part in different guided routes around the most emblematic places of the city and enjoy the performance of folk groups. The five cruisers. The five ships that coincided in the port from 9 am to 6 pm were Thomson Destiny; MSC Fantasia; Independence of the Seas; Grand Celebration and Celebrity Constellation, these last two on first call and positioning. The visit of MSC Fantasia was the beginning of season with boarding port in our island, to which it will come back every eleven days until next April. It was expected that by the end of this period a total of 500 cabins had been occupied in Tenerife. The Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is expecting to close the present year with 383 calls of cruise ship (+10%) and, predictably, around 673 thousand passengers. This involves a 16% increase in relation to the results of 2009, with 580,605. This figure rises to 870,000 if the crew members are also taken into account. This is a kind of tourism that far from being affected by the international economic crisis, it produces encouraging figures for the next years. It is precisely the economic side of this traffic what shows another of the most spectacular figures, since its annual economic impact on our province is estimated in 70 million Euros.

6 THE PORT OF SAN SEBASTIÁN DE LA GOMERA, ON THE ROUTE OF LARGE CRUISERS Large cruise ships, vessels with capacity for up to six thousand people, with passengers and crew members, have since last November an installation especially made to measure for them in the port of San Sebastián de La Gomera, and this implies a definitive promotion to this kind of traffic, including the island on the route for these large vessels. The new infrastructure was tested last Friday, the 19th, with the first call of the Mein Schiff, a ship with 76,522 tons in gross tonnage, 264 metres in length and 7.8 draught, which arrived at the island with 2,700 passengers, 1,800 were cruise passengers, mainly Germans, and the rest were crew members.

7 About 600 tourists went on an inland excursion, where they got to know its spectacular geography and enjoy its exquisite gastronomy. Those who preferred to stay in San Sebastian also enjoyed the gastronomy thanks to the crafts fair installed for the purpose by the town hall of the capital and the council. This important boost to the tourism in the island of La Gomera is possible thanks to the construction works promoted by the Port Authority to extend the external dock by 102 metres, which has increased to 675 metres the total length of the dockpier. Of this total, 300 metres belong to the last installation, resolving the berth limits and guaranteeing the mooring in appropriate conditions for most of the cruise ships that arrive to our archipelago. As established by tradition, the Port Authority of Santa Cruz de Tenerife thanked and celebrated with TUI Cruises the first call of the Mein Schiff in the harbour of San Sebastian de La Gomera by the respective exchange of plaques on board of the ship. Among the authorities that attended this ceremony were the president of the Port Authority, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, and the holder of the inter-island Council, Casimiro Curbelo. The extension works of the dock were granted to the joint venture formed by Acciona/Construcciones Darias/Ramón Arteaga, for a 13-month period and a budget close to 5 million Euros. They were granted European funding thanks to the ERDF.

8 C. WELLS: TENERIFE HAS A GREAT PORT, SAFE AND WITH MANY FACILITIES The port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is a great port, nice, with many services and safe for the stay of our ships. This is what the captain of the Queen Elizabeth, Christopher Wells, declared during the welcome act that took place on board on the occasion of the first call of this ship of Cunard Lines in Tenerife, a visit that strengthens over 170 years of history of the shipping company and its relationship with the island. Queen Elizabeth arrived to the harbor of Tenerife with a full crossing, almost 2,000 passengers served by 1,007 crew members. Its departure for the second western port she visited in her maiden voyage, Santa Cruz de la Palma, was preceded by a performance by the boat of the recreation of the Infantry Squad of the Canary Islands.

9 A large representation of the port community attended the traditional plaque exchange, led by the president of Ports of Tenerife, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza. It was made up of, among others, the harbor master of the province, Antonio Padrón y Santiago; Eduardo Álvarez Hamilton, in representation of Hamilton y Cia., and the pilot Jesús Pineda on behalf of the corporation of Santa Cruz. The president of the Port Authority mentioned that all the large cruise ships of Cunard have stopped in the harbour of Tenerife and thanked the presence of the new ship in the ports of the province. As it is usual, he presented the captain with a plaque and a bottle of malmsey wine, remembering the many writers, among them Herman Melville, Walter Scott and even William Shakespeare, who mention our wines, acknowledging their quality, in some of their novels and plays. The new Queen Elizabeth, in maiden voyage, is the most faithful reproduction of the historical liners of Cunard Lines, elegant and spacious, receiving in their crossing tourists of many different nationalities. Its decoration pays homage to the Art Deco of the original Queen Elizabeth of 1938, boasting the supreme elegance that characterised the Queen Elizabeth 2, retired some years ago. Built in Italy with a cost of 400 million pounds, it was launched by Queen Elizabeth II on the 11th October, initiating its maiden voyage a day after from Southampton. It is now the second biggest ship of the company, after the Queen Mary II

10 RÉCORD OF INDEPENDENCE OF THE SEAS The Independence of the Seas beat in two consecutive occasions last October its record as ship with higher number of passengers that has ever berthed at our installations. The first time was on Wednesday 13th, when it arrived in the port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife with 4,145 cruise passengers and 1,365 crew members. A week later, it arrived with 4,288 cruise passengers, 143 more than the previous week, and 1,337 crew members, confirming the achieved leadership.

11 A MAGIC HARBOUR Last 24th of December, Christmas Eve, the harbor of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was especially magic when it welcomed, on such a special date, the visit of the Disney Dream, the new ship of the Disney Cruise Line, which arrived in its first port of call on its way to Castaway Key, Disney s private island in the Bahamas. The new ship is the third boat in the fleet. With 14 decks, it displaces 128,000 tons of gross registered tonnage and is 340 meters in length. With capacity for 4,000 passengers and 1,400 crew members, it arrived in Tenerife early in the morning with a total of 3,000 passengers, all of them members of the company. The president of Ports of Tenerife, Pedro Rodríguez Zaragoza, welcomed its captain and thanked Disney Cruise Line, which in 2007 also chose our installation as port of call on many occasions

12 for another of its boats, the Disney Magic, for choosing our port again. Especially designed for family cruises, the new ship, built in the shipyard Meyer Werft in Papenburg, Germany, offers activities aimed at passengers of all ages. Among its outstanding infrastructures we find Disney s Oceaneer Club and Disney s Oceaneer Lab., where younger children can develop their creativity, together with the spectacular slide AquaDuck, the first of that kind. The Disney Dream started its maiden voyage in the Caribbean, on the 26th of January FIRST CALLS The port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife received in 2010 the first calls of the cruisers: Azura

13 Adventure of the Seas

14 Asuka II Celebrity Eclipse

15 Aidablu Aidavita

16 Queen Elizabeth Grand Celebration

17 Celebrity Constellation Mein Schiff

18 Costa Concordia Disney Dream Also we can t forget MSC Splendida, Silver Spirit, Zenith, Minerva, Marco Polo, Prince Albert 2, Ocean Princess, Noordam, Westerdam, Ocean Countess, Nautica and Empress.