The meeting was attended by a dozen representatives of companies, tourism entities, shipping companies and associations of interest.

The Blue Growth Working Group of Cruises resumed its activity this morning with a clear objective: to analyse the current situation of the sector in a context of a health pandemic and to turn all its efforts to relaunch an activity that has been paralyzed throughout Spain for just over a year as a result of covid- 19.

The working group, in which a dozen representatives of companies, tourism entities, shipping companies and associations of interest participated, was chaired by the maximum port manager, Jesús Vázquez Almuíña, who invited the participants to share their vision on the sector in order to be able to take stock and work for the coming years, in a context of implementation of the Blue Growth Plan 2021-2027.

During his intervention, Vázquez Almuíña placed special emphasis on the pandemic, "which forces us to face new challenges that we must face with responsibility and determination." He said that cruise traffic is one of the activities within the tourism sector, which has been most affected by health restrictions. "In the last meetings we had we agreed on the importance of working together to make, communicate and position Vigo as a safe destination," he recalled, and this "should be used to attract, as the cruising activity is restored, greater volume of traffic".

Vázquez Almuíña recalled that for the Port of Vigo the traffic of cruises is a fundamental activity and, for this reason, we are open to work together responsibly, identifying the needs for strengthening the strategy of Blue Growth, and investing in its development through concrete projects and actions.

He hoped that this activity would resume during the second half of the year, when at least 70% of the population was already vaccinated against covid- 19. Meanwhile, the Harbour Authority of Vigo concludes the conditioning of the Maritime Station. Work that started last year and to which a total of 1.5 million euros have been allocated. Among the work that has already been carried out is that of the structural improvement of the terraces of the sea side, intervention completed last November, the reform and improvement of the units of the border control (National Police), still under implementation in its second phase and the improvement of the waterproofing of the cover of the Maritime Station - the completion of which is planned in the next weeks -. It is also planned to paint the façade of the Maritime Station (sea side), as well as the conditioning of the pavement on the Transatlantic Dining and the exhibition room and the placement of a photovoltaic installation.