Cruise industry crisis threatens Panama
The cruise industry is devastated worldwide and with the Pullmantur shipping company scrapping at least two of its vessels a cloud hangs over the future of its homeport in Colón.
The Monarch had a capacity of 2,333 passengers and in recent years had made 52 departures from Colón 2000.
Pullmantur reported that the Monarch and Sovereign vessels, two of the three ships that made up its fleet, will be dismantled and the future of the company that accepted the Spanish bankruptcy law is unknown after the coronavirus pandemic erased earnings it had made in the recent past.
The company announced in late June that operations would resume in November, but made no specific mention of departures from Panama.
Last year the company reported that it transported 406,000 passengers and 53% of its turnover was obtained in the European market, while the rest was contributed by its operation in the American continent.
The Colón 2000 port, has no information about the future of Pullmantur’s operation, and the Panama Tourism Authority (ATP) has not responded to inquiries.
Industry sources suggest that a third ship, the Horizon, will also be scrapped and that there is the possibility that the company will operate some ships used by Royal Caribbean but to date, there is no certainty
With the prospect that Copa Airlines will operate with less than 10% of its fleet in the short term, it will be difficult to market a cruise ship leaving Panama in the coming years, so the future of the home port is uncertain.
Ovr 50% of the passengers that boarded Colón were South Americans (Colombians, Argentines, Ecuadorians); followed by Americans, Canadians, and Mexicans.
The Cruises Investment Holding fund and Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) own 51% and 49% of the shares of the Spanish shipping company, respectively. This week they announced Ernst & Young in Andalusia, Spain as administrator of the bankruptcy in an attempt to revive the company.
Economic loss
It is estimated that the departure of each cruise ship from Colón 2000 represented an economic injection of 750,000, which means that, the Panamanian economy is losing $3 million in foreign currency each month
In 2019 the ATP signed a contract with NCL (BAHAMAS) LTD, owner of the Norwegian cruise line to make departures from the port that is being built on Perico Island, in the Amador Causeway. The agreement will be effective from 2021 until 2023and establishes that the company will depart from the new cruise port and, will transit the Panama Canal, will a tour of 7 or 9 days through the Caribbean, and end at the Colón 2000 terminal.
At the end of that tour, the cruise ship will start a new journey departing from Colón, it will travel through the Caribbean islands, and back to the Canal to dock in Amador, but in the current environment nothing is certain,
