The Portuguese Sea Minister, Ana Paula Vitorino, said that growth at Portimão’s cruise terminal was 53% higher than last year as the city welcomed 71 cruise ships and around 30,000 passengers.The entity that runs the Algarve’s ports is still the one based in Sines as this management function has yet to be returned to local control despite plans to do so.
The Ports of the Algarve and Sines administration said the growth at Portimão’s cruise terminal shows that investment in the port and local tourism facilities is paying off.
The city has a target of raising the number of cruise ships from 50 to 190, as well as accommodated longer ships but this depends on dredging the Arade river and extending the quayside.
The government finally agreed that €17.5 million will be channelled into making Portimão into a destination that can handle these larger ships – this is after years of talking about the possibility. Last November, the government and the EU stated they were to fund this redevelopment to boost the city’s cruise passenger numbers to 180,000 per year by 2030 and said the work will be completed by July 2020. (HERE)
One of the problems has been the Ports of the Algarve and Sines administration that has concentrated on developing Sines as an import/export hub while denying Portimão the funds with which to develop and expand.
The administrators of the Ports of Sines and the Algarve are up to their old delaying tactics by launching a public tender to carry out an 'environmental impact study' for the project to dredge and widen the Arade to accept larger ships.
The €150,000 on offer is to fund a study that has a full five years within which to report its findings, such is the urgency displayed in the tender document.
Either the completion date of 'July 2020' is overly ambitious or the environmental impact study is peripheral to the project: either way, expect more delays.
