Cruise season 2022-2023 begins and Guatemala expects 66 ships with 85 thousand passengers
The Quetzal Port Company (EPQ) announced that on Friday, October 7, the Scenic Eclipse cruise ship with 200 passengers docked at the Duque De Alba dock. This ship, which touched Guatemalan port for the first time, opened the 2022-2023 cruise season, which will end next June.
According to information from the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism (Inguat), for this season the arrival of 66 boats is expected, with 84 thousand 975 passengers. In Puerto Quetzal, in the Pacific, the arrival of 42 is expected, with 71,429 people, while in Puerto Santo Tomás de Castilla, in the Atlantic, the reception of 24 is projected, with 13,546 visitors.
According to Rolando Schweikert, director of the Guatemalan Chamber of Tourism (Camtur), tourism operators have opted for marketing, promotion and international marketing, through different tourism fairs abroad, to promote Guatemala as a destination. and attract visitors to the country at a general level, but, above all, to take advantage of the start of the season for this segment, which tends to recover after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Carlos Ramos, president of the Association of Tourist Service Providers of Antigua Guatemala and Sacatepéquez (Asoprotur), said that one of the main destinations for visitors who decide to get off the boats is Antigua Guatemala.
For the 2021-2022 season, Inguat registered the arrival of 48 cruise ships to national coasts, with 55,768 passengers. Before the pandemic, in the 2018-2019 season, 106 boats docked at the national docks, with 136,548 passengers, with an estimated average expenditure of US$208.9 per person and some US$15.75 million in total, for purchases of tourist packages, crafts, clothing, jewelry, food, drinks and more.
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