The last cruise ship in 2016 arrived in Bar Cruise Port where Global Ports Holding (GPH) is a majority owner.
MS Thomson Celebration, operated by the British company Thomson Cruises, 215m long, 27m wide and with nearly 8 m draft, has brought 1,241 passengers and 519 crew members to Bar, a total of 8660 passengers since the beginning of cruise season. With the arrival of the seventh ship, the cruise season in 2016 was officially closed. On this occasion, the Company, in cooperation with the Economic and Catering High School, organized for English tourists a traditional welcome reception with local specialty (fritters and honey) as well as the performance of the Cultural Artistic Group "Jedinstvo" from Bar.
Tanja Novovic, BCP cruise activities coordinator, stated "We are very satisfied with what we have accomplished. We have put Bar on cruise ships destination map. In a very short time, we have mastered and introduced necessary standards for the acceptance of cruise ships. Citizens recognize the positive effects of this activity and this is very important to us. This first cruising season in Bar has been a very important experience for us. This has been a kind of test to see what we can do and how we cooperate with each other, in order to promote local economy and environment in the best way possible. I think this has to be significantly improved. The cruise ships' acceptance is an additional activity for Port of Adria, not the core business. With this, we want to open new perspective for the development of Bar. To be more successful, we need to cooperate more. Accordingly, in the upcoming period, I expect even greater support from the local community including the municipality and the TO. At least it deserves it. Once again, I thank everyone who has participated in the organization, especially Mrs. Olja Fatić, representatives of the Local producers, who has been with us since the beginning and with whom we have established great cooperation, Mr. Danilo Nikolić and students of the Faculty of Maritime Studies Kotor, the agency Allegra that brought the cruisers to Bar, the local government. Once again, I want to thank Ms. Tanja Spičanovic from Economic and Catering High School and her students whom I already see as great young entrepreneurs.
In order to succeed, we need to cooperate further with each other because we have the same goal. Therefore, we expect greater involvement of local government, TO and the media.
