Pullmantur Will Offer a New Cruise Departing from Colon

Panama arranged for the Spanish Pullmantur Cruise Line to keep a cruise ship sailing year round from the Colon 2000 Port on the Atlantic coast. The agreement was established last week at the Incentive Tourism Fair, held in the Barcelona, Spain. The extension of Pullmantur cruise ship departures from Panama will be effective as of the 2012-2013 season. Pallmantur started to make use of Colon 2000 Cruise Port two years ago. During its first year, the Spanish cruise line conducted a 9 month season, but during the 2011-2012 season, it trimmed its departures from Panama to 5 months.

The cruise line reported that Horizon, the ship operating in Panama with a capacity for 1,828 passengers, will be utilized in other routes; that is the reason why it trimmed its departures from Panama. According to Ernesto Orillac, Deputy Minister of the Tourism Authority of Panama, another agreement will not be signed with the cruise line, at the moment, regarding the season departure extension from Panama. Currently, both parties have a promotional agreement running, which establishes that each of them has to contribute with $100,000 USD. “We do not rule out the option of signing a new agreement, as Pullmantur will have a ship operating in the country for 12 months,” Orillac stated.

During the first nine months of the year, 227,371 cruise ship passengers arrived in Panama, which represents a 17 percent increment compared to the same time period last year. Today, both Pullmantur and Royal Caribbean are the two cruise ship lines that utilize Panama as a homeport. Orillac indicated that the decision made by the Spanish Pullmantur Cruise Line will effectively help to attract more cruise ship line companies to Panama, as this decision will reinforce Panama’s image as a homeport. Although the companies’ names were not revealed, Orillac announced that the Tourism Authority is currently negotiating with two cruise ship line companies that are interested in departing from Panama.