The president of Madeira Ports (APRAM, SA), Paula Cabaço, establishes as a major objective for the near future of the association that brings together the port authorities of Madeira, Azores, Canary Islands and Cape Verde, the creation of a new cruise tourist destination: The destination of Macaronesia.
“This is the path we have to point out. A new cruise destination, which speaks directly, with one voice, to the companies”, said Paula Cabaço, maintaining that the four archipelagos of Cruise Atlantic Islands (CAI) have unique characteristics, their own authenticity and singular identities that complement each other, and which allow this itinerary to present itself to the cruise tourism industry as an appealing and differentiated product. “Just as we speak today of the Caribbean as a cruise destination, we are working together, and we have all the conditions, so that in the future the Macaronesian islands will also be a reference destination on this side of the Atlantic.”
This objective was reinforced by Paula Cabaço during the CAI Conference 2024, which took place over three days in Funchal. It was the first formal meeting of the five port authorities – Madeira, Azores, Canary Islands (Las Palmas and Tenerife) and Cape Verde –, after the official constitution of the International Association of Ports of Macaronesia.
An important step, which gave legal personality to the CAI brand, opening the doors to a new range of possibilities, such as applying for community funds to promote the destination and reinforcing the legitimacy of being able to speak with one voice with the companies. “They know they have an interlocutor here”, highlights Paula Cabaço, adding that the Association’s next steps include holding a general assembly, scheduled for November 11th in Madrid, when the activity plan for the next year will be defined.
It will be there, at the first main meeting of the new Association, that the governing bodies, management and secretariat will take office for the first two-year term. The presidency of the International Association of Ports of Macaronesia will rotate among all members, with Paula Cabaço taking the lead in the first term.
“It is an honor to be able to actively participate in this process. 30 years ago, Madeira was at the basis of the cooperation agreement with the Canary Islands that gave rise to CAI, and now we are once again committed to the development of this partnership, extended to Cape Verde and the Azores”, says the president of Portos da Madeira, who makes a “widely positive” balance of the CAI 2024 Conference.
The event, which brought together nearly 80 experts from the cruise industry and was promoted by APRAM, began by paying homage to the founders of CAI, Juan Francisco Martin (Canaries), João Reis (Madeira), Eduardo Alvarez Hamilton (Canaries), Michael Blandy (Madeira) and Franklim Spencer (Cape Verde), before projecting the future through the eyes of Eduardo Cabrita (MSC Portugal), Fiona Noone (Marella Cruises, TUI), Kai Algar (Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines), Amadeu Albuquerque (Mystic Cruises) , Rafael Fernández-Álava (Costa Crociere) and Mark Robinson (BC Group).
The speakers highlighted the potential of the Atlantic islands of Macaronesia as a cruise destination, pointing out the safety of the islands, the uniqueness and complementarity of the archipelagos, the quality of the port infrastructure, the climate, the offer of air connections and the proximity to the main European capitals, as an added value of this itinerary.
At the same time, APRAM took advantage of the presence of the vice-president of CLIA Europe, Nikos Mertzadinis, who was the co-host of the Conference, to formalize an environmental cooperation agreement, through the signing of a protocol between Funchal City Council, CLIA and Ports of Madeira, with a view to carrying out annual reforestation and environmental education actions in the Ecological Park, involving cruise companies that visit Madeira. An agreement that soon began to be implemented, with a tree plantation taking place the day before in the Funchal Ecological Park, involving a group of participants at the CAI Conference.
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