Port accessAt the Port of Bilbao Cruise Terminal over 150 professionals and experts come together in a forum that seeks to boost a growing sector – in 2017 there were 61 cruise vessels.
The Port of Bilbao is now established among the main cruiser points of call on the Northern Iberian Peninsula, and for another season, the Getxo Cruise Terminal expects to maintain the same pace of activity as it did in 2017, when it reached a level of 61 cruise vessels with 83,600 tourists on board. Many of them disembarked to enjoy the gastronomy and shopping facilities in Getxo and Bilbao and other places in Biscay and the Basque Country.
Cruises make up a sector that is growing year by year and their global impact is 110,000 million euros and one million jobs. This is an interesting market for Biscay which is generating challenges and important opportunities for the tourist sector. In addition, it represents a new niche to explore and to develop activities and products in. Since 2017, Bilbao Bizkaia has had a specific working group (the Bilbao Bizkaia Action Group) to design actions around a new cruise strategy in which institutions, specialised companies and key agents in the sector (including agencies, transport authorities, hotel and catering and the retail trade) are taking part. This working group has set its own particular objectives to increase call times and attract cruise tourists.
All these questions are being dealt with today in the Olatuan Bilbao Bizkaia Cruise Talks forum, an event aimed at the tourism professionals in Biscay who wish to stimulate sustainable growth inside this sector of the tourist industry. Olatuan Bilbao Bizkaia Cruise Talks brings together in the cruise terminal over 150 professionals, destination negotiators and public entities with
acknowledged national and international experts in the sector to address different themes such as cruise friendly destinations, how cruisers operate and how the offer for cruise tourists is made through talks and round tables.
Olatuan Bilbao Bizkaia Cruise Talks is a forum for professional dissemination and coming together, set up to promote excellence in the cruise sector in Bilbao- Bizkaia and with a clear commitment of the entities supporting its organisation- the Territorial Council of Biscay, Port Authority of Bilbao and the town councils of Bilbao and Getxo respectively. The University of Deusto, NIS, Bilbao Paso a Paso and the Getxo Marina are also collaborating in the event.
The event is published on social networks with the hashtag #OLATUAN18. Complete programme available at www.olatuan.eus.
