“We are putting a lot of expectation in this enterprise that will also position São Vicente in the cruise tourism segment, with an added value greater than what currently exists,” said the head of government, who is visiting the island.
After visiting the construction site, the Prime Minister said that the cruise terminal “should be completed in January 2024” and predicted a strong impact on the neighboring island.
“I am sure that Santo Antão will also benefit from this investment by the Government of Cape Verde,” he said.
Usually, about half of the movement of tourists and cruise ships in Cape Verde is registered in Porto Grande, built in 1962 in Mindelo, São Vicente island.
That port will receive the new cruise terminal, work on which began in January 2022, under the responsibility of the Portuguese-Cape Verdean consortium made up of Mota-Engil and Empreitel Figueiredo.
The work was awarded €26,483,603, co-financed by the ORIO Fund from the Netherlands and by the OPEC Fund (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) for International Development, and has an estimated completion time of 22 months.
The Cape Verdean government expects that it will be possible to attract 200,000 cruise ship tourists annually with this infrastructure.
The calls of cruise ships at Cape Verde’s ports increased 360% in 2022 compared to the previous year, translating into a movement of almost 48,000 tourists in one year, according to official data previously reported by Lusa.
According to data compiled from an annual report on port movement prepared by the public company responsible for managing the archipelago’s ports, Enapor, there were 129 calls of cruise ships from January to December 2022.
This contrasts with only 28 calls by cruise ships recorded in the whole of 2021 – a period still conditioned by restrictions on international travel due to the covid-19 pandemic – which then handled 11,066 passengers.
In the whole year 2022, the calls of cruise ships translated into a movement of 47,479 tourists visiting the archipelago, a year-on-year increase of 329%.
In 2019, Cape Verdean ports received a record 149 cruise ship movements and 48,500 tourists.
With information from Sapo