Tourism on the Costa Tropical, just like the rest of Spain’s coastlines, is taking a big hit, but it’s not just empty hotels & chiringuitos, but the ports, too.

One growing sector for Granada in general has been the steady arrival of packed cruise ships, full of tourists wanting to visit not only Motril, Salobreña, Almuñécar and La Herradura, but the city of Granada with its myriad attractions.

But it’s dried up.

The luxury, sailing ship , Sea Cloud scheduled to visit on the 19th with its 94 passengers was the first of the tourist season that would last until November… but its visit has been cancelled.

So far the port has received notification of six, cruise-ship cancellations between now until the 11th of May. Another eleven planned stop overs scheduled for later this spring and the beginning of summer are in the balance which could go either way, depending on how the health crisis develops.

These 17 cruise ships scheduled to visit would have brought nearly 11,000 passengers and 6,032 crew members, who would have given a breath of fresh air for our asphixiating tourist sector. Just the confirmed six cancellations means the loss of 5,583 tourists.

Compared with last year, with its 10,000 passengers-cum-tourists, we’re talking about just over half of the hoped-for trade evaporating.

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