José Arturo Musi, President of the Mexican Association of Cruise Ship Tourism, says that cruise ships schedule to arrive in Los Cabos over the coming weeks are looking at making changes to their itinerary after the area suffered heavy damage by Hurricane Odile.
An estimated 40 scheduled cruises are considering changes to their itineraries and adding additional days to their Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan ports.
Cruises are considering the changes due to infrastructure damage and an impact in the food service industry, and other tourism service, not only at the port but also in Loa Cabos’ centro district.
The estimated 40 cruises expected to make adjustments to their upcoming itineraries represent a total of 80,000 passengers, a negative financial impact for the Los Cabos economy and a win for the Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan destinations.
Two cruise ship arrivals to Puerto Vallarta were cancelled during the month of September due to hurricanes Marie and Odile, having a negative economic impact to the local economy estimated at 1.5 million dollars.
Princess Cruises has become the first cruise line to cancel a port call in Los Cabos.
Princess said its 1,970-passenger Coral Princess, which had been scheduled to call at Cabo San Lucas on September 26, will skip that stop and call instead at Puerto Vallarta further south in Mexico.
Puerto Vallarta’s cruise industry has been recovering the last couple of years after in 2012 many cruise ships cancelled arrivals due to the fear of violence, which was never present in the area.
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Miguel Angel García Beltrán, General Director of the Port Authority Vallarta, said “We had a forecast of 107 arrivals for 2014, currently our total is 117, which means 10 more cruise ships will arrive at this port than originally predicted.”
García Beltrán is projecting that 2015 will be better, with significant growth, currently Puerto Vallarta has a schedule of arrivals with 142 cruises confirmed and that there will be no pauses, so Vallarta will have the presence of vessels every month of 2015.
The director noted that the Port Authority Vallarta this year started a recovery, because last year only 81 arrivals were recorded.