Week-long event will put spotlight on Gibraltar's maritime industry

Gibraltar will host a week-long event for executives from the global maritime industry in a bid to highlight the range of services on offer on the Rock.

While Gibraltar is well known in the maritime industry as the western Mediterranean's busiest ship refuelling port, ship owners and operators are often unaware of the numerous other services offered by operators based here.

Maritime Week Gibraltar, which will be held from June 24-28, aims to address that, attracting around 250 delegates from approximately 30 different countries.

It will detail Gibraltar's leading role as a Mediterranean bunkering port, while highlighting too ancillary services that range from dry-docking to crew changes, victualling, ship registration and legal services.

The event was launched by the Minister for the Port, Gilbert Licudi, the Captain of the Port Manuel Tirado and Llewellyn Bankes- Hughes, managing director of Petrospot, the company organising the event.

The five-day event will include four technical site visits including to GibDock, three evening receptions and one VIP Government-led reception, a management course, an exhibition, a conference and networking events.

In addition, a Royal Navy vessel will be docked in Gibraltar during the event.

Delegates will have the opportunity to board the Royal Navy vessel, as well as other vessels that will be docked in the port for the week.

“As we all know, Gibraltar from a strategic point of view has always been important for the maritime industry,” said Mr Licudi.

“We have literally thousands of ship movements along the Strait of Gibraltar every year and that has made Gibraltar an important port of call for many of those ships."

Maritime Week Gibraltar will include representatives from an array of suppliers to the industry in Gibraltar, highlighting the fact that the port provides more facilities than just bunkering.

These representatives include Shell, The Carnival Corporation, Lloyd’s Register, Simms Showers, Intertek and GibDock.

“We are one of the premier ports in the Mediterranean, the number one port for bunkering, but bunkering is not the only thing we do from a maritime point of view. There are a whole range of services that are provided,” Mr Licudi said.

The week-long event will provide an opportunity to showcase Gibraltar's maritime offering while strengthening relationship with industry executives from around the globe.

“Maritime Week Gibraltar is a great opportunity to showcase not only the huge range of services Gibraltar has to offer the marine industry, but how the industry itself is changing and adapting in response to global demand,” Mr Bankes- Hughes said.

“Gibraltar Maritime Week will be a place to hear about cutting edge development, providing plenty of debate and networking opportunities with world leaders in the maritime industry."

The event will have a number of keynote speakers, details of which will follow over the coming months.

Mr Tirado said the port is geared up for the event.

“We do a huge amount of work marketing Gibraltar Port and what we have realised over the years is that not everybody is aware of everything else we do in Gibraltar,” he said.

“We realised that we need to bring people over to Gibraltar and showcase Gibraltar for what we are really offering. Definitely the port is geared up and we are fully supporting the event,” he added.

Pic by Johnny Bugeja