The campaign launched by Barcelona City Council to reduce cruise ship activity in the Catalan capital has led to the creation of a discussion table between administrations with the aim of downsizing them, with tough negotiations set to begin this autumn.
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 62 – September 2022
Text: Patricia Castán.
The port authority and cruise line operators disagree on the city council's interpretation of the figures, demanding objective data and refuting the municipal arguments that blame passengers for the negative impacts of tourism in the city center and the industry for its polluting effects. With municipal elections just months away, the controversy is raging, and the sector's short-term development is at stake in Europe's leading cruise destination.
Just a few months ago, the arrival of the Wonder of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, brought cruises back into the media spotlight in Spain. In its Mediterranean debut, it docked in Palma and Barcelona, two major tourist destinations in Spain, where for many it symbolized recovery and high expectations. It marked the return of large-scale cruise ship arrivals, highlighting the economic impact they have on the region and the sector, but also drawing criticism from those who insist on downsizing the cruise industry.
Barcelona, Europe's leading cruise port, which handled over 3.1 million passengers in a record-breaking 2019, went from that period of hyperactivity to paralysis due to the pandemic, which particularly affected this tourism sector because of the risk of infection on board. The recovery of activity was slow and uncertain starting in June 2021 when health authorities allowed it, but as soon as the number of ships began to normalize last spring—to the satisfaction of the port, service providers, cruise lines, and, above all, the cruise passengers themselves—controversy arose.
While the Catalan port hadn't reached 521,000 passengers throughout 2021, in April of this year it already saw over 127,000 (220,000 accumulated in those four months). This coincided with a Holy Week of frenzied travel in a Barcelona that had been deserted for months, and served up a perfect opportunity to debate the tourism model just a year before the municipal elections. The image of a small river of cruise ship passengers heading down La Rambla from the Columbus Monument was key in placing this sector at the center of a controversy that, from the outset, has been based on a very biased interpretation of the figures, as the Port of Barcelona has criticized.
Unexpected Announcement:
Following some initial allusions to the issue, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau announced with great fanfare in mid-May that she would ask the Catalan and Spanish governments to limit the number of cruise ships docking in the Catalan capital. The news that 125 arrivals were scheduled for May fueled the debate, without taking into account that the ships' occupancy levels were lower than usual, given that many travelers had not yet regained confidence in traveling due to the lingering effects of the Omicron variant.
Colau proposed “a calm and data-driven debate” to regulate cruise ships, with the dual objective of reducing tourist pressure and pollution. One of her criticisms was directed at passengers in transit, the 40% who spend only a few hours in the city. “Thousands of people arrive, they concentrate in the city center, and it creates a feeling of gridlock,” she said.
On a peak day, with more than 20,000 potential movements, only a minority of passengers spend just a few hours in the city, and up to 18% are distributed among excursions, while 4% remain on board.
Two months later, the institutional debate on the arrival of cruise ships in Barcelona began with the first meeting of the so-called study group on the possible regulation of the phenomenon, which includes representatives from all three levels of government and the Port Authority. For the city council, the average of 400,000 cruise passengers the city receives during peak season (May to October) is too many, so their proposal is as radical as reducing that number by half.
The leader of Barcelona en Comú found an ally or source of inspiration in the Balearic Islands government, which had agreed with the employers' association on a limit of three boats per day, of which only one could carry more than 5,000 passengers. In the case of Barcelona, Colau proposed a limit of 10,000 passengers or three boats, which sent shockwaves through the sector.
To mount an offensive against cruise ship activity, Barcelona City Council has resorted to the document it hastily prepared before meeting with other administrations. The 'Report on the Externalities of Ship Traffic in the Port of Barcelona', prepared by the Strategic Office for the Coastal Area and Barcelona Regional, presents a barrage of figures, the selection and interpretation of which is light years ahead of that carried out by the Port Authority or the cruise line operators.
Peak Days and Comparisons:
It is highlighted, for example, that since 2015 the number of passengers has grown at an annual rate of 7%, reaching the aforementioned record of 3.1 million in 2019. However, emphasis is placed on the so-called peak days or 'red' days, with more than 15,000 people, which on certain dates add up to a total of up to 25,000 theoretical cruise passengers. It is also emphasized that operations are not increasing (around 800 port calls or new routes have been added for more than a decade), but the capacity of the ships is.
Once again, examples like Palma, Dubrovnik, and Venice are cited, overlooking the comparison between each city's urban planning and population size. "Barcelona has to join that group of cities," stated the Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Janet Sanz. In this context, it's worth noting that in Barcelona, cruise ship passengers are the only tourists who pay tourist tax without staying overnight, and with an increasing municipal surcharge: €2.75 if the ship is in port for less than 12 hours, and €4.75 if it stays longer. This revenue could facilitate the logistics of improving their integration into the Catalan capital, with a little political will.
Barcelona Regional has warned that even in a transition year like this one, there can be up to seven cruise ships in port simultaneously, concluding that “the current rate of growth in tourism activity is unsustainable.” In addition to the environmental risk, they question the economic impact, highlighting that cruise passengers in transit spend 'only' around 50 euros per day in Barcelona, while those making a turnaround (starting and/or ending their cruise) spend an average of 202 euros.
The city council finds it worrying that transit passengers were allowed in 2020 and 2021. They are also concerned about the concentration of these visitors in the Gothic Quarter and other central neighborhoods, especially during the 55 days a year when more than 15,000 cruise ship passengers arrive. They go so far as to attribute the emptying of trash cans on La Rambla 14 times a day to their presence, and to characterize them as a "herd" when they disembark. They also accuse them of an unsustainable consumption of 200 to 300 liters of water per day, "twice that of a resident," they assert.
Disregarded Agreement:
A key element in the debate is the city council's view that the 2018 agreement to reorganize cruise ships is "insufficient." At that time, and with similar figures, the agreement stipulated the concentration of activity at the Moll Adossat, further from the city center and with a maximum of seven terminals, and the dismantling of the nearest terminals (Moll de Barcelona), where smaller, luxury ships used to dock. Thus, no more than seven cruise ships can ever be docked at the same time, including even the most exclusive vessels with barely a hundred passengers.
Barcelona relies on the cases of Palma or Venice to advocate for degrowth, without taking into account the size or population of the city, and the opposing voices of other parties.
And although the city is overflowing with tourists this summer of 2022 (still below pre-pandemic levels), with such a political context and the electoral countdown, the cruise ship passenger has been cast as the villain and the cause of overcrowding.
The other side of the data:
Having reviewed the data in the municipal report, the Port of Barcelona has called for a consensus on objective figures before addressing any decision that affects its operations. Clearly, data from infrastructure operators, reports from independent organizations, and a detailed analysis of the numbers contradict all the premises used to try to cripple cruise ships.
The controversy sparked by the Comuns party, which is not shared by either their Socialist coalition partners or part of the municipal opposition, has sidelined the sector. For starters, as we mentioned at the beginning of this article, passenger numbers are even lower than in the years before Covid-19, whether due to the health restrictions still in place this summer by some shipping companies and airlines, or to the lingering fears some passengers, especially the elderly, may have in enclosed spaces.
A quick look at the latest figures is enough to illustrate this. This year, the number of port calls has practically returned to normal (between January and July 2019 there were 420 calls, and in the same period of 2022 there were 416), but the number of cruise passengers is very different: 1.63 million and 1.02 million respectively. In this context, Colau's push seems ill-timed. It's incomprehensible that in 2018 (a year similar to 2019) an agreement was accepted that is now being disregarded
Another key aspect is the assumption of continued growth due to the increasing size of the ships. In fact, the city council estimates that there will be more than 3.5 million cruise passengers by 2030, according to its growth projections. However, after a period dominated by megaships carrying up to 7,000 passengers, this trend has slowed. Only 18% of the ships under construction or on order until 2027 have a capacity for more than 5,000 passengers.
Between the externalities and the economic impact,
and given the current lack of understanding displayed by politicians, the president of the Port of Barcelona, Damià Calvet, insists that the agreed-upon infrastructure controls are already sufficient to contain growth. Sources at the Port Authority emphasize that, legally, entry can only be prohibited for security or health reasons, as happened during the pandemic.
Drawing on previous reports, such as the economic report from the University of Barcelona (2016 version), Calvet points out that the activity has an impact of more than one billion euros annually for Catalonia (especially for Barcelona), with more than 9,000 direct jobs, and that the solution is not degrowth.
Colau's municipal government is proposing to reduce the 400,000 monthly cruise ship passengers in high season by half, or to limit ship arrivals to three per day or a maximum of 10,000 passengers.
The sector is watching with a certain helplessness what many consider a “data manipulation” to support Colau's intentions. And the fact is, in this area, many figures are not easily interpreted. Starting with the 3.1 million passengers in 2019, which is used as a benchmark, it's important to remember that activity was minimal in 2020 and 2021. The city government is overlooking the fact that this volume doesn't represent people, but rather movements. Those who begin and end their cruise in the city (the majority) are formally counted twice, upon embarkation and disembarkation, for the purposes of the annual reports. Cruise passengers represent between 4% and 8% of the city's total tourist volume, according to calculations by the Port Authority (including all types of visitors) and the aforementioned study by AQR-Lab at the University of Barcelona.
Proportionality is another issue the city council seems to be ignoring. Using Palma as an example is not appropriate in the eyes of the operators, given that the Mallorcan capital has around 400,000 inhabitants, while Barcelona has four times that population, meaning the theoretical saturation threshold would be much higher. The same applies to Dubrovnik, where the restrictions affect not only cruise ships, or to Venice, where the problems are more focused on access to and intrusion into the city center.
Cruise Lines and Arrival Schedule:
Regarding the alleged overcrowding of ships on peak days, it's important to remember that ship capacity is one thing, and the actual volume of passengers on each route is another. Any predictions for 2022 are futile, as cruise ships are arriving with lower occupancy rates than in previous years. Once cruise lines normalize, there will be room to adjust the combination of large and small ships docking, Port officials insist.
To quantify these considerations, it's worth analyzing one of those peak or "red" days in detail, with results that highlight the inconsistency of some municipal arguments regarding the theoretical impact on local tourism. This past July, the peak day saw 20,400 potential movements, and we say potential because it's never certain whether all passengers will disembark or remain on board due to, for example, a storm.
The expected flow was divided among several ships of varying sizes. According to official data provided by Port technicians, the 'Mein Shiff' generated 2,586 passengers in transit (making a stopover) and only 5 who began or ended their journey in the city (T/R); the NCL 'Epic' accounted for 4,892 passengers embarking and disembarking, while 1,161 were making a stopover; Virgin's 'Vaillant Lady' had 690 passengers in T/R and 32 in transit; and Royal Caribbean's gigantic 'Wonder of the Seas' reached 10,110 passengers beginning or ending their journey plus another thousand making a stopover, they explain.
Analyzing these movements qualitatively, it can be deduced that approximately 7,750 passengers (those who disembarked at the end of their cruise) mostly went directly to the airport with their luggage, then took a taxi to a hotel if they wanted to stay another night in the city; or they took their own cars or taxis if they were local or nearby travelers. Many other passengers beginning their cruise vacations arrived in the same way, from hotels, airports, or their homes to board their ships. Therefore, the actual number of cruise passengers likely to congregate in Barcelona's city center was a maximum of 4,800 people on a peak day.
In the spring, Colau forced the creation of a committee between local, regional and state administrations, along with the Port Authority, to take measures to regulate cruise ships in Barcelona.
As a point of reference, it's worth noting that Renfe's Cercanías Line 1 carries approximately 25,000 passengers daily to Barcelona during the summer (until noon), of which 20% are tourists arriving from the entire northern coast. That's about 5,000 people, many of whom get off at Plaça Catalunya, at the other end of La Rambla, but then follow the same route as the cruise ship passengers in the opposite direction. If we were to add the rail traffic arriving on Line 2 from the city's southern coast, the figure would be even higher.
Cruise Passenger Routines
But returning to the disembarkation and the supposed invasion of the cruise “herd”, as defined by the Councilor for Ecological Transition, Eloi Badia, it seems to be overlooked that the operation is not simultaneous for all ships, but that some passengers disembark early in the morning and many others in stages, depending on whether or not they know the city beforehand and have more or less ambitious, organized or improvised plans.
After consulting statistics from cruise line agents and the cruise companies themselves, it appears that around 4% of cruise passengers do not visit Barcelona, either because they are already familiar with the destination or because they want to enjoy the ship when it is nearly empty. It's also worth noting that Spaniards (2019) make up 11% of passengers passing through Barcelona, making them the fourth most represented nationality. Many of these are Catalans who travel from their homes to take the cruise and are obviously not tourists.
Among the passengers who do disembark, the same sources indicate that between 10 and 18% book excursions, depending on the ship's category. These local excursions are conducted by coaches boarded at the port with guides, and include tours that can cover the entire city, but also the province (10%), from Montserrat to Sitges, to name a few, depending on the time spent ashore.
Of the remaining passengers with layovers, between 82% and 90% are independent and explore the city on their own. They may take a taxi for a personalized tour or know where they want to go based on prior knowledge, while others opt for the cruise line buses to leave the dock, or the official Port shuttle bus, which drops them off at Drassanes, at the foot of the Columbus Monument.
A matter of management.
In this regard, Calvet is convinced that the solution is simple: “Improve management.” It would suffice to diversify the vehicle release points in areas of the city without overwhelming traffic, thus promoting decentralization, as is already being studied.
The date we analyzed had more Mediterranean route beginnings and endings than ships in transit, confirming that for years six out of ten users correspond to this modality, much more profitable (due to the daily expenditure that includes prior or subsequent accommodation and gastronomy) and to the liking of the council for its lower tourist pressure, by carrying out routines less concentrated in time and space.
In this regard, it's striking that the city council, in its assessment, uses the unique figures from the pandemic years to claim that there are increasingly more cruise passengers stopping over. These figures are distorted because restrictions prevented international connections, and many regular international routes from Spain were canceled. Furthermore, the so-called mega-cruise ships often launch their itineraries in the city, rather than just making a stopover, due to the comfort, modernity, and spaciousness of its terminals (where major companies already have their own terminals under construction or in operation), which other major competitors, such as Civitavecchia (Rome), lack.
Environmental Measures:
The issue of pollution and sustainability is another key aspect of the debate, obviously necessary in the context of the climate change crisis. The Port prioritizes being a home port for the most modern fleet, as this is less polluting to the environment. They emphasize that 53% of the vessels present this season are less than 10 years old and are implementing measures accordingly.
The Barcelona Regional report includes numerous measurements that demonstrate the environmental externalities of this industry, although it does not compare them with data from cargo ships or ferries, which have a greater environmental impact, or with road traffic in the city, a major urban problem. The document highlights that no concessionaire or operator has opted for environmental impact reduction projects to qualify for the incentives offered by the Port a few years ago. Calvet counters that the infrastructure is doing its homework. This begins with the electrification of the docks to reduce cruise ship emissions (“which currently account for less than 1% of the city's total”), with 0.7% nitrogen oxides (NOx) (lower than ferries), which will be ready by 2026. This way, the ships will be plugged into the power grid instead of keeping their engines running during their stay to operate their services.
The Port Authority also argues that limiting cruise terminals to seven, concentrated at the Adossat dock, which was agreed with the city council in 2018, is sufficient to stabilize traffic flows without cuts.
In any case, the sector has the advantage of having all the short-term forecasts and planning at its disposal, allowing it to anticipate the side effects of this holiday transport and seek alternative solutions. Port sources indicate that next year's port calls are expected to remain at a stable volume of around 800, pending further information on booking trends.
It should be possible to achieve a dynamic and consensual management model (weighing economic data and objectively assessing the figures) that does not stifle or criminalize the activity, but rather optimizes and integrates it.
Fewer Megaships:
Cruise lines seem to have slowed down the competition for the 'bigger and more spectacular' ships, opting for more manageable dimensions and specializing their offerings. According to official data, the industry has 72 cruise ships under construction or in the early stages of development for the next five years, of varying sizes and categories (with an average capacity of 2,260 passengers), of which only 13 are for more than 5,000 passengers, not including crew.
Moreover, proof that many users increasingly value experience and service quality over quantity is the boom in the construction of mid-sized or small luxury ships. They don't compete in the number of activities and attractions, but they do compete in service and gastronomy. Half of the projects underway are for fewer than 1,000 people, and 50% of these are for fewer than 500. And adding together all the ships with a capacity of 2,000 to 5,000 passengers, they account for 28% of the total.
In this regard, Alfredo Serrano, director of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) in Spain, makes an important distinction regarding size. While it directly influences the volume of cruise passengers a port can receive simultaneously, larger ships are, conversely, the ones that implement the most environmental sustainability measures to offset their impact and are leading the way in adopting liquefied natural gas. Their size gives them greater capacity to accommodate and deploy emissions purification systems, recycling plants, and other processes.
