The port of Las Palmas has for centuries been the traditional stopover for provisioning for ships crossing central region of the Atlantic. Its strategic geographical position, the excellent conditions of the bay and the quality of its services have given it an important position on the main sea routes between Europe, Africa and America. The port's history may be traced back to 1492 when Christopher Columbus used the bay on his journey to America to repair and provision the two caravels La Pinta and La Niña. The excellent location of the port did not go unobserved by the European powers of the 19th Century who used it as a base for their expansion into America and Africa and for the development of international commerce. The port of Las Palmas in the year 1600. The growth of the city of Las Palmas of Grand Canary is impossible to understand without reference to the Port of La Luz, which has been the catalyst for the economic development of the most populated urban area within the Canarian archipelago, with its 360,000 inhabitants. Commerce between the islands developed from this port and a tourist industry was born which today receives 9,000,000 tourists a year throughout the archipelago and 2.5 million in Grand Canary. The Port of Las Palmas today has 14 km of dockage, which extends in harmony towards the North of the City, with an extensive area of free port for all kinds of operations. The Port of Las Palmas is connected to 180 ports and numerous shipping lines on four continents. It is known as the great petrol station of the Atlantic for the 1,500,000 tons of oil products loaded annually, some three tons every minute. For its proximity to the rich fishing grounds of Africa and its infrastructure it is the most important fishing port of the area, with a daily turnover of 1,000 tons of frozen fish. It is the most important port of the West African sea area for container traffic and is among the 80 most important ports in the world. Every two minutes a container is loaded or unloaded. It boasts the biggest naval repair centre of the area, with the capacity to undertake repairs on floating supertankers and to ground ships of up to 30,000 tons as well as sports craft (yachts). It is a traditional stopover for cruise ships, with a volume of more than a million passengers. The port also has the biggest yachting marina in the Canary Islands, with berths for 850 craft. The port of Las Palmas has always enjoyed free trade, which is now embodied in the special Régimen Económico Fiscal de Canarias (Economic and Tax Regime of the Canary Islands) or REF, which is a special statute within the European Community. Within the port, an area of 1,000,000 million m2 is being prepared for the development of the Zona Franca (free trade area), the Zona de Actividades Logísticas or ZAL (area of logistical activity) and the Zona Especial Canaria or ZEC (Special Canarian Economic Area). The Port of Las Palmas has a long tradition of free trade dating back to 1852. This has been perfected with the new advantages offered by the new Régimen Económico Fiscal de Canarias (Economic and Tax Regime of the Canary Islands) or REF which creates an area comparable to other offshore zones around the world. This a Zona Franca (free trade area), a Zona de Actividades Logísticas or ZAL (area of logistical activity) and a Zona Especial Canaria or ZEC (Special Canarian Economic Area) will be developed within the Port. These three regimes are being developed within the same area of more than a million square metres in the ports of Las Palmas and Arinaga which, with a completed infrastructure, will be offered to companies dedicated to the production, transformation, manipulation and marketing of goods. The port of Las Palmas is the most important port in the South of Europe, the most significant in the West African sea area and has a long-standing tradition of contact with America. It is ideal for international commerce because of its location, its communications networks, the fact that it is a natural market for goods entering and leaving Africa and America, for the high level of services offered and its economic dynamism.