Valletta Cruise Port bags another award

Valletta Cruise Port has received the Best Mediterranean Port & Destination award conferred at the Cruise Excellence Awards.

The award was presented to Valletta Cruise Port in Cartagena (Spain) during a gala ceremony taking place on the evening of 18 February.

The Cruise Excellence Awards recognizes the protagonists of the cruise industry in 13 categories. The awards are based on the results of a macro survey to cruise travellers that has been conducted in 2015.

The event brought together the senior executives of the main cruise companies, tour operators, port agents, Mediterranean destinations, travel agents, press, suppliers and companies in the cruise industry.

Stephen Xuereb, CEO of Valletta Cruise Port said, ‘We are very proud to be receiving this award. Valletta Cruise Port and Malta have the right mix to excel: port infrastructure, destination attractiveness, a good product offering, outstanding service delivery with good passenger flows in the key facilities, varied transport modes, and safety and security. All this within a value-for-money proposition, and delivered with pride and passion.

"We dedicate this award to all the personnel of Valletta Cruise Port, who together with local stakeholders relentlessly work to ensure that Malta is professional, efficient, reliable and flexible in meeting expectations on all fronts.”

Minister for Tourism Edward Zammit Lewis congratulated Valletta Cruise Port on obtaining the prestigious award of the Best Mediterranean Port & Destination.  

Zammit Lewis was pleased to remark that the cruise liner market has undoubtedly taken on a critical importance within the context of Malta’s tourism industry and 2015 was an exceptional record year, reaching a high of more than 670,000 cruise passengers. He emphasized that, every year, cruise ships give the opportunity to over half a million travellers to get a first taste of what the Maltese archipelago has to offer, and eventually a portion of such first-time visitors shall decide to return to our islands for a longer stay, therefore generating even further business.

He commended Valletta Cruise Port for their relentless work towards the growth of the local cruise liner industry and stated that the results achieved in this segment reflect the concerted and co-ordinated drive by all stakeholders to develop our product and promote Malta’s increasing attractiveness and popularity as a leading cruise destination within the Mediterranean.

Cruise passenger data released recently indicates that during the last year, the total number of cruise passengers increased by 30%, or by nearly 152,000 passengers, when compared to the same period in 2014, to reach a high of more than 670,000. Moreover, Malta’s cruise sector has been successfully evolving from one which was exclusively a port of call, to one which strategically also includes the concept of home-porting.

The Cruise Excellence Awards, whose first edition took place in 2008 in Barcelona is a brand and product of Cruises News Media Group, organizer of the International Cruise Summit in Madrid and editor of CruisesNews magazine.

Valletta Cruise Port had previously received a Cruise Excellence Award in 2009 as Best International Port, received jointly with Venice.