August 10, 2018 (Ministry of Public Works). Cruise tourism has become a regular feature of traffic in Spanish ports. More than 4.4 million cruise passengers called at one of the 46 state-owned ports of general interest during the first six months of the year, representing a 23.5% increase compared to 2017 figures.
According to data provided by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), the direct contribution of this sector to the Spanish economy reached 1.481 billion euros last year, 12% more than in 2015, providing direct employment to 31,233 people.
The president of State Ports, Ornella Chacón, highlighted the work of the Port Authorities and other stakeholders in the sector to preserve and strengthen the cruise market. “Cruise passengers also generate indirect jobs and boost the local economy, which improves the quality of life for thousands of families,” she explained.
Spain ranks 2nd in Europe as a destination country for cruise passengers, and 4th as a source country with more than 510,000 Spaniards embarking in 2017. The same report cites the port of Barcelona as the main port in all of Europe with more than 2.7 million cruise passengers in 2017, followed by Civitavecchia (2.2 million) and the ports of the Balearic Islands with 2.1 million.
The spectacular rise in cruise traffic in Spanish ports has been driven, in particular, by the good performance of the ports of the Canary archipelago, which have grown by more than 35.6%, going from 960,848 passengers in the first half of 2017 to 1.3 million in 2018.
Mediterranean ports, with 2.76 million passengers, grew by 19.9%, while those on the Atlantic peninsula, with 404,278 passengers, grew by 14.8%.
By Autonomous Communities, Catalonia, with the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona, is second in number of cruise passengers behind the Canary Islands, and with 1.29 million passengers experienced an increase of 22.9%.
The ports of the Balearic Islands accumulated a total of 965,404 cruise passengers, an increase of 27.8%.
Andalusian ports received 424,019 cruise passengers, 15.5% more than in 2017.
In the Valencian Community, the ports of Alicante, Castellón and Valencia exceeded 199,000 passengers, 5% more than the previous year.
Meanwhile, the five Galician ports reached 140,271 passengers, suffering a decrease of 5.9%.
In the Region of Murcia, the port of Cartagena exceeded 86,535 cruise passengers.
In the Basque Country, the ports of Bilbao and Pasaia, with a 13% increase, exceeded 42,875 passengers.
In Asturias, the ports of Avilés and Gijón reached 13,756 passengers.
The ports of Santander and Ceuta close this list , with 5,387 and 1,228 passengers, respectively .
