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Cruise: Puerto Rico

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San Juan: Record 1.5 Million Cruise Passengers in FY 2014-2015

Cruise traffic reached record levels at the Port of San Juan during the fiscal year ending June 30. The data, as reported by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority, show 1,509,473 revenue passengers passed through its San Juan harbor terminals, a 24.4 percent increase from the FY 2013-2014 total of 1,213,059. Cruise ship calls also increased, by 19.3 percent to 551 from 462. The numbers include traffic generated by port-of-call visits, as well as San Juan ported cruise vessels. 

Port Authority Executive Director Ingrid C. Colberg Rodríguez said the record numbers are evidence of the port’s solidity and repositioning in the Caribbean region and underscore the importance of the maritime industry’s to the nation’s economic development.

She also pointed to the successful implementation by the Puerto Rico government of an incentive program directed at the cruise industry. 

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla announced last fall that Puerto Rico would invest $8.3 million in the Dock 3 expansion to allow the berthing of so-called mega-cruise ships capable of carrying more than 6,000 passengers. 

The project was completed in November, in time to receive Royal Caribbean’s second largest cruise ship, the 4,905-passenger Quantum of the Seas. In May, the ports authority announced that San Juan would host 10 visits in the 2015-2016 winter season by the world’s largest cruise ships, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, bringing a total of 60,000 passengers and generating an expected local economic impact of $64 million.


Cruise ships line the San Juan waterfront in this recent photo. The cruises piers are within walking distance or a quick drive from Castillo San Felipe del Morro and other popular tourist attractions in the Old San Juan Historic District.
Photo/Puerto Rico Ports Authority
 

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