“A successful product from the Portuguese islands may be emerging, a cruise line through the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores, at least to be judged by the number of contacts made by travel agents with the Administration of the Ports of Madeira [APRAM], with the objective of selling this product”, the chairman of the board of directors told Lusa News Agency.

Paula Cabaço said that this route is aimed at the German market and arose “from the need to seek alternatives, in a scenario still with the pandemic”.

"With surprise, we have been contacted by travel agents, who want to market this new product, which they say is also of interest to the national market", he added.

In addition to Mystic Cruise, he said, there are two more companies interested in this route.

The ports of Madeira, by resolution of the Regional Government, reopened to cruises on 16 October of last year, with constraints resulting from the pandemic situation of covid-19, with the port of Funchal receiving the ship Seadream I eight days later and, in November, Disney Wonder, on a technical scale.

Since the reopening of the ports of Funchal and Porto Santo, there have been many large yachts and sailboats to the region, usually for supply and rest of the crew, as they are vessels on repositioning trips from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean, he said.

In 2020, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the ports of Madeira experienced a 74 percent drop in the number of passengers and a 76 percent drop in the number of calls, in a year in which forecasts pointed to significant increases.