Carnival cruise lines will return to Mazatlán beginning in October this year.
At a press conference yesterday, Sinaloa Governor Mario López Valdez announced Carnival cruise lines will return to Mazatlán beginning in October this year. With that announcement, all cruise lines which dropped the port from their itineraries three years ago are now returning.
On its website Carnival, the largest cruise line in the world, is promoting a seven day cruise on the Mexican Pacific coast this year and into the next, with ports-of-call including Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta.
The company confirmed 110 cruise ship arrivals in Mazatlán during the 2014-2015 season with at least 330,000 passengers and an unspecified number of crew members.
The cruise lines of Azamara, Norwegian and Holland America among others began arriving in the port in February this year, said the Governor, and as Princess Cruises has also confirmed their return for the 2014-2015 season, all cruise lines will once again have Mazatlán on their itineraries.
The good news is a result of intense negotiations with directors and owners of cruise lines with whom they agreed to implement a series of security and tourist assistance strategies, as well as meetings with tourism promoters and travel agents in various cities in the United States, Columbia and Mexico, the Governor told those attending the press conference.
Speaking at the gathering, Sinaloa Secretary of Tourism Francisco Córdova Celaya said it was due to the leadership of Governor López Valdez that the cruise ships are returning and pointed out that tourism accounted for 13.4 percent of Sinaloa´s gross domestic product in 2013.
Invited guests at the press conference included the American and Canadian Consuls in Mazatlán, José Luis Silva of the Port Administration and local hotel owners, promoters, tourist guides and the Blue Shirts tourist volunteer group.
(from Sinaloa government press release)
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