Until October 2022, the Port of Barcelona has received cruise ships with more than two million people who choose the Catalan capital as one of their favorite tourist destinations.
In this way, the Port is the Spanish port enclave with the highest number of cruise passengers received this year.
However, in Spain as a whole, cruise ship passengers increased almost fivefold, with a percentage of more than 349%, according to data from the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda.
As for the data by ports, the Port of Barcelona is followed by the ports of the Balearic Islands (1.5 million passengers received), Valencia (575,634 passengers) and finally Santa Cruz de Tenerife with a record of 408,411 passengers.
The Port of Barcelona and other ports
Compared to the transit of cruise ships during 2021, those visiting the ports increased to 3,679 units (172.7% more compared to 2021) and yielding a higher figure than the 3,496 cruise ships registered in 2019.
Thus, the number of cruise passengers in 2022 would be close to the forecasts made by the Cruise Lines International Association, CLIA. The Association estimated that Spain would reach 7.3 million cruise passengers during 2022, down 31% from the record figures of 2019, when 10.6 million passengers were counted.
Compared to other countries, Greece could reach almost five million passengers mobilized in 2022. This would be followed by France with 3.6 million and Norway with 3.3 million cruise passengers.
Undoubtedly, these figures demonstrate the preference of tourists to make the City of Barcelona their tourist destination.
About maritime activity in Barcelona
For its part, the Barcelona City Council recently entered into an alliance with a cruise company in order to boost maritime activity in the Catalan capital.
The initiative arises as a means to promote blue economy business programs in the city.
The City Council managed to make the agreement a reality through Barcelona Activa, the collaboration of the Port of Barcelona and the Costa Crucero company.
The Blue-Up business program began last October and involves eleven blue economy projects.
One of the eleven projects began aboard the Costa Smeralda, one of Costa Cruises’ four liquefied natural gas, LNG, ships. There, the participating startups have received mentoring, training and sessions with investors.
At the end of the three months of training, one of the participating ventures will receive the award for the most sustainable startup. The prize is an endowment of 10,000 euros awarded by Costa Cruises. There will also be a prize for the most innovative startup with an endowment of 10,000 euros awarded by the Port of Barcelona.
The objective is to boost the blue economy by promoting sustainable maritime economy, entrepreneurship and innovation.
