The ports of Ponta Delgada, Horta and Terceira had hosted 99 cruise liner stopovers and a total of 84,467 passengers had disembarked, up 70.7% and 38.3% respectively on the same period of 2014.


Ponta Delgada had accounted for almost a majority of these visits with 46 cruisers in port and 59,038 passengers with Horta back on 20 stopovers and 16,870 passengers whilst Terceira island got 13 vessels to visit but only 5,997 came ashore.


Macedo said that while 12 of the cruise liners had been making their inaugural visits this year, they were all planning to put the Azores upon their regular itineraries.


With an estimated annual forecast of 140,000 passengers landing, up 40% year-on-year, Macedo said that company surveys had found passengers spend an average of €30 per person whenever coming ashore and hence would be pumping some €2.5 million into the local economy over the course of this year.