TARANTO, 19 FEBRUARY 2026 - A press conference was held this morning at Palazzo Amati (the headquarters of Kètos - Jonian Dolphin Conservation) to present the international working group “Cruises & Port Cities”, established by associations MedCruise - The Association of Mediterranean Cruise Ports and AIVP - Association Internationale Villes et Ports. The activities will involve around 30 people from five countries (Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Portugal), all of whom are professionals in the port sector.
The initiative is coming to Taranto as part of the activities organised by the Ionian Sea Port System Authority (AdSPMI), which has been a partner of both associations for several years and represents the port of Taranto on their respective Boards of Directors. The working group, established in 2021 to promote best practices and synergies between cruise ports and cities, aims to strengthen the Ionian port city’s international standing, in line with the Cruise Community Engagement initiative launched by the AdSPMI. The event in Taranto marks the group’s first in-person meeting, following numerous online sessions that the two associations have been organising for the past four years.
Speakers included the Chairman of AdSPMI, Giovanni Gugliotti; the Mayor of Taranto, Piero Bitetti; the President of MedCruise, Theodora Riga; and the Secretary General of AIVP, Francesca Morucci. Also in attendance were Vittorio Pollazzon, Chairman of Jonian Dolphin Conservation, and Stella Falzone, Director of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MArTA), who served as special hosts for the working group’s activities.
 |
 |
 |
During the event, the programme of activities that the group will carry out in Taranto was presented; it is dedicated to the exchange of best practices on sustainability, governance and mobility, with a particular focus on community engagement and flow mobility. The activities on the first day will take the form of two workshops: the first is “Rethinking Access: A Simulation Lab on Tourism Pressure and Urban Mobility” led by Alessandro Vacca, Partner, Senior Director and Head of Mobility Engineering at Systematica, on the topic of integrated passenger flow management; the second is “Bridging ports and communities: from booking to berth - collaborative pathways for cruise calls”, led by Jon Olav Stedje, Sustainability & Community Engagement Manager at MSC Cruises, which will examine the relationship between ports, cities and cruise lines, with a view to identifying models of sustainable governance designed to foster positive relationships between ports, cities, cruise passengers and shipping companies.
The second day’s proceedings will be hosted by the MArTA Museum: an Open Lab will kick off the discussion between the working group members and local stakeholders, with a round-table session designed to spark dialogue among participants and enable them to share their views and experiences on how to improve a cruise destination in a sustainable manner. The closing session will summarise the group’s feedback, set out strategies for the coming year, and align expectations and synergies.
The AdSPMI thus continues to foster port-city relations and the development of sustainable cruise tourism, thanks to international initiatives that position Taranto as a popular destination in the Mediterranean. Tomorrow, the Ionian Sea Port System Authority and the Municipality of Taranto will sign the Agenda 2030 (link) with AIVP, an adaptation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for port cities, with a focus on the energy transition, sustainable mobility and governance. This agreement forms part of the organisation’s long-standing membership of AIVP and aims to become a benchmark for the local community, with the aim of using the 10 points of the Agenda as a guide for developing sustainable relations between the port and the city.
 |
 |