As the month of August is drawing to a close, Alicante’s busiest period for tourism will see the final arrivals of cruise ships with the city hosting two boats in the last few days that brought with them thousands of travellers to the Provincial capital.
The first of them, the Arvia, docked last Tuesday, while the second, the MSC Orchestra, arrived on Thursday. In total, according to the Port Authority, more than 8,400 cruise passengers arrived to close the month of August.
P&O Cruises ship, the Arvia, brought some 5,200 people, while the MSC Orchestra entered the port with more than 3,200 cruise passengers on board. However, this ship sails around the Mediterranean from Alicante, which is its home port.
This will be the culmination of a month in which, including this last week, some 36,000 cruise passengers have arrived in the city, which, added to those of July, resulted in an influx of almost 60,000 visitors providing an economic benefit of more than 7.8 million euros to the area.
Although the busiest months are from June to August, the high season does not end with the arrival of September. In the case of the port of Alicante, the cruise calendar extends until the end of October, when the MSC Orchestra will set sail for the last time from the city’s dock.
Nine cruise ships are expected to dock in September with a double stopover of more than 4,000 passengers, while another nine ships will bid farewell to the high season in October, according to information from the Port Authority.
But MSC is planning to return to Alicante for the next high season with additional strength. Apart from the MSC Orchestra, which will change ships next summer but will carry out the same route, the shipping company is delighted with the performance of the Alicante port and wants to add new routes from it.
This was confirmed by the general director of MSC in Spain, Fernando Pacheco. “We are working internally in the company to increase the number of stopovers in summer 2025 to reach a volume greater than the 32 ships,” he said.
