The CLIA Spain Column
By Alfredo Serrano
General Manager, CLIA Spain
Article from the magazine CruisesNews No. 77 – June 2026
One of my obsessions—in the most positive sense of the word—is to promote academic research that helps us gain a scientific understanding of a specific topic; data are excellent tools when it comes to designing strategies, developing action plans, and making decisions in a rigorous manner. Because “believing” is not the same as “knowing.”
As I write this, we have just presented the results of the study *Cruise Tourism in Barcelona’s Tourism Dynamics: Volume, Intensity, and Pressure* (2024), a project carried out by the University of Girona (UdG) and the result of a collaboration between CLIA and the Port of Barcelona.
Before delving into the main findings, it is worth highlighting the innovative nature of this study. For the first time, it offers a comprehensive analysis of our sector within the city’s tourism dynamics, examining not only the number of visitors but also how they are distributed across specific locations and times. It also provides a detailed analysis of the 30 days when the city receives the most visitors.
Previous studies had already concluded that we represent a small portion of Barcelona’s tourism. Now, thanks to this new study, we know that cruise passengers account for 2.5% of the city’s total daily visitors. In just 32 days, they account for more than 5% but no more than 7.5%. These figures once again confirm that cruise tourism is a minority segment in Barcelona. Likewise, this research shows that there is little overlap between the days with the highest visitor numbers and those with the highest number of cruise passengers.
As he explains, the city’s tourism dynamics result from the interaction of multiple flows (overnight tourists, day-trippers, residents, commuters, and cruise passengers), which converge simultaneously in specific spaces and at specific times. The concentration of cruise passengers in Barcelona is sporadic, localized, and limited in time; and our role must be understood within the context of the tourism system as a whole, rather than in isolation.
Once the current situation has been assessed, the study looks to the future and identifies three opportunities that would help improve tourism planning and management in Barcelona: moving toward data-driven tourism governance; strengthening the proactive management of tourist flows by taking advantage of the predictability of segments such as ours; and addressing the locations and times when the largest crowds occur through specific, targeted interventions.
Although these recommendations from the University of Girona (UdG) are focused on Barcelona, I believe they could be applied to any cruise destination in our country. The sector is firmly committed to promoting a sustainable, balanced tourism model that generates value for local communities and reconciles the needs of residents and visitors. If anything defines us, it is that our industry is planned and organized months in advance, which is precisely what facilitates the management of visitor flows. Let’s make the most of the data and work together in a coordinated manner so that Spain becomes a global success story in cruise tourism management—a benchmark for others to follow.
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