Given rumors that two Royal Caribbean ships would stop at Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico's executive tourism director, Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, said Puerto Rico will remain a major destination for cruise ships and the two mentioned above, the Adventure of the Seas and Serenade of the Seas relocated its operations to Europe for 26 weeks, but will return to local ports between November 2011 and May 2012.

 "It's a business decision that Royal Caribbean took, but it means a drop in activity," said the official, who announced that new vessels arrive in the country such as the Azamara Journey, the Carnival Dream and Disney Fantasy.

He added that the Freedom of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas will continue their regular visits to San Juan and were not affected by the above decision. While recognizing that the growing demand in other ports worldwide, as the Mediterranean and Asia, affected the Caribbean.

comScore, Inc, a company that measures Internet statistics, released its monthly analysis of web activity in the United States at the top online properties for June 2011 based on data from the comScore Media Metrix service.  Summer seems to have propelled the Travel category of websites as several Travel subcategories ranked among the top-gainers in June.

Within the surge came 116 million people visiting the Travel category in June, a record for the category, and of particular interest is the Ground/Cruise sites saw the strongest gains, up 14 percent to nearly 13.5 million visitors.

1. Amtrak.com 2.6 million visitors (up 14 percent)
2. FirstGroup plc 2.2 million (up 22 percent
3. Carnival Cruise Lines 1.5 million visitors (up 9 percent)
4. Royal Caribbean 1.1 million visitors (up 19 percent)

"Summer getaways were clearly top-of-mind for many Americans in June, sending millions of people to hotel, cruise, car rental and travel agent sites," said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. "And with school letting out for the summer, parents turned to the web to shop for ways to keep their kids active with sporting goods and other fun activities."

Many of our readers are eager to know the state of construction at Falmouth, Jamaica.  Being one of Royal Caribbean's newest ports of call, it's a common stop for many Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruises.  If you're curious what the state of affairs are, here are some photos of the port that Otterman34 posted on CruiseCritic recently.

Photo by Jason Trent

At the first stop of Genoa, Italy, Mariner of the Seas, flagship of Royal Caribbean in Italy, was presented the new programs of the Society of Genoa and the Italian market. "The first departure is tomorrow and the ship is full, "explains Lina Mazzucco, general manager of Royal Caribbean Italy, "When I joined the company spent only from Genoa, but this year we will do the next 7 loadings and even 14".

"In the port there have been many interventions to allow their ships like ours to have access and we are very pleased," continues Mazzucco , "Our goal is not only to bring Americans and other foreign tourists in Italy and Genoa, but also French and German just to embark from the port of Genoa. We are already working on that. "

The regional governor in Italy, Claudio Burlando, has proposed today better synergy between Genoa and Savona on the arrival of cruise passengers.  

"The collaboration with Royal Caribbean is very important, since it is a group among the largest in the world with next to Carnival and MSC, which incidentally is growing very well," said the president, during the first arrival in Genoa of Mariner of the Seas, flagship of Royal Caribbean in Italy.

"Last year, we met with Royal Caribbean officials on a cruise, and from there began a relationship that has led to increased calls. Next year we will already be at 60,000 passengers, so a number of all respect, then it may be that collaboration is being extended to become a customer and Caribbean ports of Liguria. And who knows not form a relationship with the company for construction at this time are the thorn in our side. It 'obvious that if we found a new party prepared to build here, the situation would change profoundly. "

Royal Caribbean has already bet on the port of Genoa to grab a share of the Maritime Station, the company that operates the passenger traffic. "When he left Genoa to Savona Coast had 500 to 600 000 cruise passengers in 2012 we will have as many 1 million in Savona and Genoa. It is about four times as much - still Burlando - The huge amount of passengers waiting to Savona places a high level of importance and necessity, more than double its terminals, while Genoa opened the new west pier, and you start works for the Ponte Parodi ".

"The movement hotel in Liguria attendance records 10 million and 3 million arrivals, with average attendance of 3 days - is the reflection of the regional governor - If we consider only to cruise passengers who arrive in Genoa, which this year will be 1 million and 800 thousand, it is a stream that does not deviate much from the classic hotel network users. This means that the cruise is a very valuable way to raise awareness of Liguria and should prompt us to promote a more articulate and attentive host, adapted to the needs of cruise passengers who decide to leave here because they want to spend a part of the journey. We can have a closer relationship with these people in Genoa tourism next year will have 2 million people. "

Royal Caribbean will hold a conference call on July 28, 2011 at 10am to discuss its second quarter 2011 financial results.

The call will be available on-line at the company's investor relations web site, www.rclinvestor.com. To listen to the call by phone, please dial (877) 663-9606 in the US and Canada. International phone calls should be made to (706) 758-4628. There is no passcode or meeting number. A replay of the webcast will be available at the same site for a month following the call.

The number of cruisers in the port of Malaga in Spain has grown 33 percent in the first half of 2011 compared to the same period last year, doubling the average growth for the rest of the Mediterranean. Specifically, a total of 243,794 passengers have passed through Malaga, compared to 182,927 in 2010.

Specifically, the average cruise passenger was of 2,050, up from 900 in 2010 as "fundamentally" the commitment of the Royal Caribbean in Malaga, "without doubt the largest cruise company in the world," although, however, Linde has stated that the rise in the number of vessels has not been "spectacular", a three per cent. During this period, eight ships have docked for the first time in the port, two more than last year.

Linde has pointed out to reporters that in addition to Royal Caribbean, there are more companies interested in Malaga port, but stressed that it is "the big client hoped to achieve with the opening of the second phase of the Sea."

Thus, Malaga is positioned at number 13 of the European rankings, with figures very close to the ports of Marseille (France) and Copenhagen (Denmark), as highlighted on Thursday during a press conference the president of the Port Authority Malaga Enrique Linde, who has called the balance sheet "in almost all traffic very positive."

Royal Caribbean had decided to move its Serenade and Adventure of the Seas ships out from San Juan, Puerto Rico in favor of Europe as part of a business decision to chase higher revenue and that move has some in Puerto Rico worried about the relevance of the cruise industry to the island.

The executive director of the Tourism Company, Mario Gonzalez Lafuente, said that Puerto Rico remains a major cruise port and denied that the relocation of two ships represents a crisis for the industry in the country.

He said that the information circulated earlier this week and Tourism had advance. "It's a business decision that has taken the company Royal Caribbean to do this next year."

He said that both ships will return to Puerto Rico for the high tourist season in the winter of that year, which covers the months of November to May.

He added that other Royal Caribbean ships, which he identified as the Freedom of the Seas and Navigator of the Seas will continue their regular visits to San Juan and are not affected by the above decision.

According to Gonzalez, returning or coming for the first time to Puerto Rico the following cruise ships: · Carnival Dream, · Celebrity Silhoette, MSC Poesia, Norweigan Sun, P & O Artemis, Grand Princess, Azamara Journey, Freedom of the Seas, Navigator of the Seas the Disney Fantasy, which is scheduled to start their visits in late 2012.

According to statistics from the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association, last year 2010, nearly 15 million passengers took cruises in the Caribbean, an activity that generated over $ 2.200 billion in revenue for the region.

Royal Caribbean has reportedly begun searching for an ad agency to handle its $40 million to $60 million global media business, with a focus on its business in the United States and Canada.

This decision to find a media-only company is a change from the last time Royal Caribbean conducted a search in 2007, when the cruise giant selected Mindshare and JWT.  Word is that this new decision does not effect Royal Caribbean's relationship with JWT, the cruise line's creative agency.

Royal Caribbean spent about $72 million on United States measured media in 2010 and 2009 across all of its cruise brands, according to Kantar Media.