Until Friday of next week (28/02), the Port of Recife will receive 2,206 cruise ship tourists. Before that, they will pass through two capitals that are also popular destinations at this time of year in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.
Therefore, three passenger ships are scheduled to dock in the city during the Carnival festivities. The first will arrive in the city on Monday.
However, coming from Salvador and flying the Maltese flag, the vessel MS Europa 2 – which began its journey on January 30 in Santiago, Chile – has 516 tourists on board.
In principle on Tuesday (25), the Port of Reef will receive another 258 passengers, starting at 2 pm. They will come on the Hamburg cruise ship, flying the German flag, which will first stop in Rio de Janeiro. The trip began in Montevideo at the end of last month.
The two ships will only spend one day in Recife before heading to the capital of Ceará. On Friday (28), it will be the turn of the Voledam ship, coming from Salvador, to dock at 8 am. Like the others, the itinerary began abroad – in this case, the trip began in Florida, in the United States, on January 5. The vessel will arrive in the city with 1,432 passengers on board.
Prevention
Following the control protocol of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), in line with the World Health Organization (WHO), the management of the Port of Recife also prepared to face possible risk situations related to the coronavirus.
The three ships that will arrive in the city have already been in Brazil for longer than the 18 days that a vessel would routinely remain under observation in light of global alerts, a period known as “quarantine.”
The Environmental Management Coordinator at the Port of Recife, José Divard de Oliveira Filho, explains that before a vessel docks, it is customary for a “health declaration” to be issued.
However, the bulletin through which Anvisa is informed of atypical occurrences, such as cases of fever or diarrhea on board, for example.
Only after this document has been analyzed can passengers disembark.
The report is also made available by the ship's captain to the approving bodies, such as the Port Authority, approximately 24 hours before the vessel's scheduled arrival time.
In a case of this type, the captain must provide a list of travelers with identification of function, cabin, possible contacts on board, stopovers and connections.
It will also ensure the implementation of complementary health prevention and control measures guided and/or determined by the health authority.
Audio warnings with instructions from Anvisa will also be issued in four languages at the Passenger Terminal. During the disembarkation procedure, the warnings will be available in Portuguese, English, Spanish and Mandarin.
Expectation
In the same way, the 2019/2020 season will end on April 20th, with the arrival of the Costa Fascinosa.
The expectation is an increase of almost 70% in the number of passengers, and the number of vessels has also grown: instead of the 19 ships of the previous season, 26 passenger ships will arrive here, bringing more than 40 thousand visitors.
The expectation is that at least R$1.4 million will be left by tourists in the trade of goods and services.
In short, the survey conducted by Empetur shows that cruise tourists spend around four and a half hours on Pernambuco soil, and spend, on average, R$202.14 while on dry land. According to the survey, conducted in 2018, 74% of cruise passengers come from abroad.