Royal Caribbean’s decision not to call at Gibraltar for 2024 is very concerning and embarrassing for this Government and Gibraltar as a whole. Royal Caribbean’s fleet is not just prestigious and well-known it also has one of the largest vessels. For Gibraltar port to lose this carrier should make the entire cruising and tourism industry in Gibraltar stand up and take notice. What is remarkable is that when the question was put to the Minister for Tourism he was not even aware of the development and to make matters worse the Chief Minister confidently stated that they did not believe that 2024 would be a year when there would be no calls from Royal Caribbean to Gibraltar. It turns out the Chief Minister has been proven to be wrong.The Government then makes further inaccurate statements in an obvious attempt at covering up what is very bad news by stating that the ports of Malaga and Cadiz “will only receive one call from the brand in 2024”. This is obviously and clearly incorrect from any cursory look at the company’s itinerary for 2024 which shows that Cadiz will receive three visits and Malaga five!The Government needs to get real. It needs to take a long and hard look at Gibraltar’s offering and address where we are going wrong and put that right. Part of that process has to be to find out why the Royal Caribbean has decided to give Gibraltar a miss. Damon Bossino, the Shadow Minister for Tourism said: “We need to take a look at the significant turn-around Malaga, in particular, has experienced recently, transforming itself from a once forgotten city in Andalusia to a port, tourism, shopping and conference hub. In government we would be investing resources and taking bold decisions to transform Gibraltar into the touristic Mediterranean jewel it once again deserves to be.”
1a College Lane Gibraltar GX11 1AA
