Cruise passengers disembarking in Barcelona continue to grow, and in the first half of this year, they increased by 3.9% compared to the previous year, reaching 1,065,172. However, not all cruise passengers are the same: there is nothing in common between someone who arrives at port, visits the city express-style in a few hours and sets sail again, and someone who is on board a cruise that either arrives at or departs from the Catalan capital. This is because cruise passengers who have Barcelona as their home port spend more in the city, whether on hotels for the nights before or after, or on restaurants, visits, and shops.
The Port of Barcelona has been focusing on these visitors for years, and this commitment has materialized with a record 2024 for cruises with a home port in the city. In this period, 83% of the 323 cruises that have passed through the Catalan capital have used it as a port from which to set sail or to end their journey. "It is a very positive figure that does not exist in any other port in Europe; we are light years ahead," claimed the president of the Port, Lluís Salvadó, alongside the general director of the infrastructure, José Alberto Carbonell.
"It is a qualitative leap with which we are moving towards a unique model in Europe, in which we have the capacity to attract cruises with more added value and less impact on the city," highlighted Salvadó, who detailed that, while transit cruise passengers have decreased by 0.9%, home port passengers have increased by 12%. "We are trying to define a model that adapts to society's stance that the impact on citizens must be reduced and added value increased," added the president of the Port, who recalled the infrastructure's work to relocate cruises to docks further away from the city center.
The increase in cruise passengers has occurred despite a 6.6% reduction in cruise calls to the city, as the vessels have arrived "fuller" and exceeding 80% occupancy, which means that the impact per passenger is reduced while the city obtains more return per vessel. The same applies to another segment that also adds value to the port: the arrival of premium and luxury vessels, which have increased by 10% in a semester marked by the America's Cup.
The competition, which will take place from August to October, acts as a boost for the port and nautical ecosystem, and has accelerated an opening of the Port to the city that Salvadó has guaranteed will continue to expand in the coming years. In a semester that has included the first open days of the port, multiple transformations and works have been carried out, including new promenades such as that of Nova Bocana to new spaces for startups, in initiatives that "will be finished when the America's Cup begins."
This first semester of 2024 has also been marked by the Red Sea crisis, which has stopped transit through the Suez Canal and forced ships to divert around Africa, lengthening journeys by ten to twelve days. According to Carbonell, this situation has led to other ports, such as Barcelona, acquiring a sudden role as a distribution platform for cargo that has had to seek alternatives due to the crisis.
The Port has registered a 24% increase in container traffic and expects to maintain this trend, pointing to a record 2024.As a result of this situation, the Port of Barcelona has registered a 24% increase in container traffic. This unforeseen change of role as a distribution platform has even caused specific congestion problems, which is why "terminals have even had to be opened at night," as detailed by the general director. Despite the forecast that this situation will continue, the Port has an element on the horizon that will allow it to absorb increases in demand like these: the enabling of more space at the Best terminal, which will be deployed starting in September. "It will give us more service capacity to be able to face this situation," Salvadó assured.
This increase in container traffic, also motivated by "commercial and competitiveness reasons" apart from the Red Sea crisis, has led the infrastructure to move 35.8 million tons in the first half of the year, which represents 10.2% more than in the same period of the previous year.
This increase in activity has also translated into an increase in the Port's revenues compared to the previous year, with a 2% increase reaching 79 million from January to May. Operating profit grew another 3%, to 20.8 million in these five months, while the profit for the year stood at 21 million, up 13%, with an increase linked to "the situation of interest rates," according to Carbonell.
The Port's forecast is that container traffic will maintain this trend for the remainder of the year. After a first half in which the equivalent of two million TEU containers were exceeded, the Port predicts that the pace will be maintained until it reaches around four million by the end of the year, pointing to a historical record for the Barcelona port infrastructure.