CRUISE OPERATIONS: BRAZIL
BRAZIL: CRUISE CONUNDRUM Stop start cruise operations in Brazil bring not only financial problems for industry participants but also for local communities highlighting the interdependence of the two elements. Rob Ward investigates
8 Santos and Rio de Janeiro cruise terminal facilities have been hit hard by repeated COVID-19 outbreaks
Brazilian port communities and cruise terminal operators are reeling over the on-off saga that has marked the southern hemisphere cruise season since it started back on November 5, after a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19, when the MSC Preziosa berthed at the port of Santos. The 2021-22 season was picking up a head of steam but several outbreaks of COVID-19 between Christmas and New Year led to a temporary suspension from early January to February 18, when operations were scheduled to resume. According to Clia Brasil (the local branch of the Cruise Lines International Association, which is headquartered in Washington DC), the last Brazilian cruise season (November 2020 to March 2021) hosted 469,577 passengers and injected around Reais2.241billion (US$427.9 million), up from just over Reais2bn the season before, into the Brazilian economy, especially local port communities, and generated 32,000 jobs. That was the third year of solid growth, and a booster especially for the key ports of Santos and Rio de Janeiro, and it followed seven years of consecutive falls in passenger numbers. The current season was targeted to attract more than 360,000 passengers, with an impact of Reais1.7bn, in addition to generating 24,000 jobs. With, however, only two months completed it has achieved less than half of those figures and the cruise terminal operators are seething. The two key ports for cruise operations in the South American country are Santos and Rio de Janeiro, where Concais Passenger Terminal and Pier Maua are, respectively, the two cruise terminal operators. Concais only renewed its concession in 2019, for another 20 years up to 2039, and already its US$42m investment plans, including equipment
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upgrades and new terminal buildings, are being hit for six by shortfalls in passenger numbers due to COVID-19 restrictions. It can currently handle six vessels simultaneously. Pier Maua has also invested heavily in recent years (the company would not say exactly how much). It serves Rio de Janeiro, the Cidade Maravilhosa (Marvellous City), famous for the annual Carnival, partying and New Year’s Eve fireworks extravaganzas off the beach at Copacabana; plus the famous sights of the Sugar Loaf Mountain and Corcovado (the famous Statue of Christ that towers over the whole of Rio). Pier Maua has been completely renovated over the past 10 years, coinciding with Brazil hosting firstly the World Cup (2014) and then the Olympics (2016), and can accommodate up to 35,000 passengers per day, and up to 10 vessels simultaneously. Pier Maua hosted 357,000 passengers during the 2019-20 season, which completed just before COVID-19 hit Brazil, and was expecting a more modest 165,000 for 2021-22 but then came the suspensions, so that target won’t be reached unless the season is extended significantly. Santos’s offerings are more modest than Rio’s, with just the Museum of Pele (arguably the world’s best-ever footballer, who played his entire career with Santos), a coffee Museum and the world’s longest beach front garden (3.4 miles long), and some decent beaches. However, a major plus for the cruise lines is that Santos services Sao Paulo, Brazil’s industrial and financial engine, with a metropolitan area of more than 20 million, and some of the richest denizens in all South America: a large pool of potential and actual cruise goers. Now the two cruise terminals will need divine intervention from Corcovado’s famous resident to turn a decent operating profit this year and overcome the obstacles put in their way.
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