Cruise and Ferry Review - Summer/Spring 2020

2 6 1 “The biggest issue will be traffic,” says Rees. “Our new strategic master plan addresses this quite comprehensively as we intend to build a new road and new parking facilities. We anticipate that this could cost up to US$40 million, but considering that 70% of our customers drive in, it will be one of the first major upgrades we do.” The port’s self-improvements have only recently become possible due to its ‘enterprise fund’ status. “It’s only in the past two years that we have started making profits,” Rees explains. “We profited US$8 million in 2018 and we’re somewhere close to US$12 million for 2019. We are now able to start leveraging that cash flow to address these much-needed infrastructure renovations.” As part of the new parking infrastructure, Rees and his team are hoping to improve accessibility to the port. “We want to incorporate an internal transportation system that runs through the parking lot to the terminal. Ideally, these vehicles will connect with the city’s own transportation system so that cruise guests can easily visit the city and locals can use the port facilities.” Galveston has also recently joined the Green Marine certification programme, an initiative that addresses key environmental issues in the North American marine industry. In keeping with this, the port is looking at powering its proposed transport system with electricity or LNG. “We are also discussing the idea of putting solar panels on our two existing cruise terminals to halve our electricity consumption, and creating some green spaces in the port for public use,” says Rees. Despite being off the cards in recent months, Rees says the port is now looking into the possibility of shore power. “It used to be very expensive to install, so we now need to know if that much power is available to the port,” he explains. “We have old utilities here and with the development of the new terminal, we are realising that there is more to do than simply building a structure.” CFR “In 2019 we went from being the 12th busiest cruise port in the world to the 11th. We are growing”