The Minister for Tourism, Vijay Daryanani, has attended the Cruise Lines International  Association’s (CLIA) conference in Southampton and the 60th Medcruise General Assembly in  Palamos, Costa Brava. 

A statement from the Government follows below:

CLIA consists of leading member cruise lines dedicated to the expansion of cruising. The  conference, the 14th to be held, is the largest event of its kind to be held in the UK. It took place on  board the Iona, which made its inaugural call to Gibraltar earlier this year. It gave the Minister the  opportunity to network with the important players in the cruising sector. 

Minister Daryanani then travelled to Palamos where he held back to back meetings with several  senior executives to continue pushing Gibraltar’s port as an important destination in the  Mediterranean. 

Minister Daryanani commented: “This is the continuation of my targeted promotion of Gibraltar as  an outstanding cruise destination. We have made tremendous inroads within the industry. It is  great to see the prominence that we are getting, in the international cruise press, at conferences  and in all fields of cruising. This is an important industry for our economy. Our attendance gave us  another opportunity to catch up with all of the top executives and showcase our product. It is  imperative that we are always present at these events. Every time I attend I realize how competitive  this industry is and all ports are trying to get a slice of the same cake. We cannot rest on our laurels  just because we have built up a good reputation. We need to improve our product and work towards  increasing calls in the short term. I will keep up this work over the coming months”.