The world’s largest cruise companies will kick off their annual conference this Monday in Fort Lauderdale (Florida), 40 km from Miami, where they will discuss the state of the industry and its challenges, including reducing carbon emissions.
This year’s edition of “Seatrade Cruise Global“, considered the largest cruise fair in the world, will be held from 27 to 29 March at the newly renovated Fort Lauderdale Convention Center, whose exhibition area has been doubled to 32,500 square metres.
Spain, Portugal and several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, as well as Puerto Rico, an associated state of the USA, have their own pavilions at Seatrade, which has as its central point the conference that will bring together on Tuesday the presidents of the world’s main cruise lines under the heading “Forward Momentum”.
The roundtable will address the state of global tourism and the cruise industry.
BBC World News presenter Lucy Hockings will host Kelly Craighead, President of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA); Frank Del Rio, Chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings; Jason Liberty, Chairman of Royal Caribbean Group; Pierfrancesco Vago, Chairman of MSC Group; and Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation.
“With major innovations on the horizon and consumer demand on the rise, this year is a pivotal time for the cruise industry,” the CLIA director said in a statement, highlighting the “path of innovations” implemented to “help navigate to a better future”.
During the talk, panelists will address and discuss capital issues related to the future of the industry, such as environmental sustainability, destination management and consumer travel trends, Seatrade Cruise Global said in the statement.
“We are very excited to kick off the conference with a dynamic line-up of new speakers representing the four major cruise lines and our partners at CLIA,” said Chiara Giorgi, Seatrade Cruise’s global director of brand and events.
Giorgi noted that the keynote panel “will serve as a powerful introduction to start the dialogue on key issues affecting our industry as we dive into another year of exchange, collaboration and networking at Seatrade Cruise Global”.
The conference will explore “the prospects for the industry’s commitment to carbon neutral cruising by 2050”, how cruise lines are collaborating with destinations to support “responsible tourism” and how the industry is moving forward post-pandemic.
In addition, there will be a review of the ships that will make their debut in 2023 and new cruise experiences and technology.
Among the scheduled talks is a session entitled “It’s not just for theme parks anymore: how technology is shaping the future of onboard experiences”, presented by Mark Amos, vice president of JRA and Trevor Young, vice president of new construction and refurbishment for MSC Cruises.
The session will feature the new Robotron attraction on board MSC Seascape.
The show covers all sectors of the cruise industry, including attractions, art and interior design, entertainment, environment, ports and destinations and shipbuilding.
Ports of Spain has one of the largest pavilions at the fair, hosting the ports of a Coruña, Alicante, Almería, Algeciras, Cádiz, Baleares, Barcelona. Bilbao, Cartagena, Ferrol, Huelva, Malaga, Melilla, Motril, Santander, Seville, Tarragona, Valencia and Vigo.
In addition, there is a pavilion for Ports of Catalonia and another for Ports of the Balearic Islands, and the ports of the Canary Islands are promoted in a pavilion of the Atlantic islands, as they were at Seatrade 2022, which was held in Miami Beach.
