The CLIA Spain column
By Alfredo Serrano
Managing Director CLIA Spain
Article from CruisesNews magazine no. 77 – June 2026
One of my obsessions—in the most positive sense of the word—is to promote academic studies that help us obtain a scientific picture of a specific topic; data are excellent companions when designing strategies, action plans, and making rigorous decisions. Because “believing” is not the same as “knowing.”.
At the time of writing these lines, we have just presented the results of the study Cruise tourism in the tourism dynamics of Barcelona: volume, intensity and pressure (2024), a work prepared by the University of Girona (UdG) and the result of the union of synergies between CLIA and the Port of Barcelona.
Before delving into the main findings, it's worth highlighting its innovative nature. For the first time, a comprehensive analysis of our sector within the city's tourism dynamics is offered, examining not only the number of visitors but also how they are distributed across specific spaces and times. Furthermore, it includes a detailed study of the 30 days when the city receives the most visitors.
Previous studies had already concluded that we represent a small part of Barcelona's tourism. Now, thanks to this new study, we know that cruise ship passengers account for 2.5% of total daily visitors. In just 32 days, they exceed 5% but do not surpass 7.5%. These figures again confirm the minority status of cruise tourism in Barcelona. This research also demonstrates a low correlation between the days with the highest visitor numbers and those with the highest cruise ship arrivals.
As he explains, the city's tourism dynamics respond to the interaction of multiple flows (hotel guests, day-trippers, residents, commuters, and cruise ship passengers), which converge in specific spaces and times simultaneously. The concentration of cruise ship passengers in Barcelona is specific, localized, and time-limited; and our role must be interpreted within the overall tourism system, not in isolation.
Once the picture of reality is defined, the study looks to the future and identifies three opportunities that would contribute to improving the planning and management of tourism in Barcelona: moving towards data-driven tourism governance; strengthening the advance management of tourist flows, taking advantage of the predictability of segments like ours; and addressing the points and times where the greatest concentrations occur through specific and focused interventions.
While these recommendations from the University of Girona (UdG) focus on Barcelona, I believe they could be applied to any cruise destination in Spain. The sector is firmly committed to promoting a sustainable and balanced tourism model that generates value for the regions and meets the needs of both residents and visitors. If anything defines us, it's that we are an activity planned and organized months in advance, which is precisely what facilitates the management of passenger flows. Let's make the most of the data and work together in coordination so that Spain becomes a global success story in cruise tourism management, a benchmark.
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