Motril Port is surging ahead, and if the province’s port, doorway for cruise ships to local tourism is doing well, then the rest of the Costa Tropical is sure to follow.

The port already has 15 cruise stop-offs organized for 2014, transporting 24,000 tourists, which, by the way, is a 24% increase on the 2013 figures. Let me put this another way, during 2012, Spanish port traffic decreased by 5.38% whilst Motril port increased by 17% in the same period.

The bulk of the 15 cruise ship visits for 2014 are made up by Thomson Cruises (11), and the other four by the Holland American Line. Add to this the ever increasing ferry traffic between Motril and North Africa and we’re looking at a healthy situation, set to get even better.

The two cruise lines mentioned above, Thomson and Holland American, have already made their presence felt with five stop offs for the former and four for the latter, to which you can add four stop offs by Paul Gaugin Cruises and one from Ponant Cruises. Other cruise lines that use Motril are Azamara Club Cruises with four stop offs and Star Clippers with seven.

Now all they need is for the Central Government to get its reluctant finger out and finish the autovía. To speak of a rail connection is  Brothers Grimm material, but will Motril Port ever have one…?

(News: Motril, Costa tropical, Granada, Andalucia)