Cruise Tourism Activity – International Events of the tourism industry

Cruise activity in ‘Port de Barcelona’ generates 413.2 million euros in revenue, which means a 2.2 million daily turnover. According to a study from the University of Barcelona (UB) released this Tuesday, direct and indirect expenses from cruisers, shipping companies and crews amounts to 796 million euros and most of it stays in Barcelona. The study also shows that the cruise activity generates around 7,000 jobs and has other positive effects on the Catalan economy such as the increase of activity at ‘Aeroport del Prat’. In terms of tax revenues, 152 million euros benefitting Catalonia and the whole of Spain are collected from cruise activity, besides the tourist tax.

The Catalan capital is the main beneficiary of this activity, since 75% of the profits stay in the city of Barcelona (a 313.4 million euros contribution to the GDP and 5,039 jobs in absolute terms).

Cruiser profiles

According to figures released by Barcelona Tourism based on a survey of 3,100 cruise passengers, the study established the profile of travellers who visit the Catalan capital. Cruise passengers who visit the city without staying overnight spend on average 4.3 hours in Barcelona, representing 57.5% of total passenger movements. The “turnaround” cruise passengers (who start and end their route in Barcelona) stay on average 2.6 nights and account for 23.9% of total movements, while the remaining 18.6% correspond to passengers who get on the boat in the city without staying overnight or visiting it.

The port of Barcelona is the first cruise port in Europe and the Mediterranean, and the fourth in the world, preceded by the three major ports of Florida: Miami, Port Everglades and Puerto Cañaveral.

It does not escape anyone that the world of cruises is an activity of the first economic magnitude that has experienced a strong growth in the last decades worldwide. Far from lowering expectations, different reports and studies reaffirm that we are talking about an upward trend where a greater supply of ships will predominate, with much more capacity and where new destinations will emerge in the global panorama, increasing the total number of passengers willing to embark on this tourist modality.

Barcelona is a first-class destination for this sector thanks, among other factors, to its tourism success, its geographical location, its current hotel offer and the accessibility and proximity to different transport systems. The Catalan capital has become the leading cruise port in Europe and the Mediterranean, registering record figures with more than 2.5 million cruise movements and more than 800 ships of these characteristics. In addition, the fact that Barcelona acts as a base port assumes that the own operations of start and end of the itineraries are developed, requiring infrastructures and added services that have an impact on the revitalization of other secondary economic sectors.

Cruise tourism in Catalonia continues to increase and soared in the first half of the year to the two main Catalan ports, Barcelona and Tarragona, according to data published this Friday by the State Ports Authority.

Barcelona continues as the first cruise port in Europe. Between January and June a total of 1,256,143 cruise passengers passed through the terminals of the port of the Catalan capital, a figure that is 20.5% higher than the same period of the previous year.

According to the data of the state entity, during the first half of the year 1,990 cruises in Spain, 251 more than in the same period last year. The cruise passengers accounted for 31.08% of the total number of passengers registered in the Spanish port system.

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