The mayor: for the first time in history, a limit is placed on the growth of cruises in the city
Today, the Barcelona City Council and Port Authority have signed an agreement to reorganize the activities of cruise lines and make them more sustainable for the city, which provides for the reduction of the number of terminals from seven to five for cruises at the Adossat Pier of the port, with the suppression of three of the four public terminals and the maintenance of the three terminals under private management – Costa Cruises’ terminal D, terminal E of the Carnival group, and MSC Cruises’ Terminal H – to which a fourth (terminal G) under construction will be added, to be operated by Catalonia Cruise Terminal, a joint venture between the American cruise group Royal Caribbean and Cruise Terminals International (CTI), which is a company owned by Royal Caribbean itself (10%) and by funds managed by iCON Infrastructure (90%).
In particular, the agreement provides that the reduction in the number of cruise terminals is the result of the demolition of the current public terminals A, B, and C, which are the oldest in the port, and the construction of a new terminal that will replace terminal C and which will be public, open to the public, and with a capacity for 7,000 passengers. The new terminal will give priority to cruises that have Barcelona as their home port and to small ships. A complete renovation of the long stretch of pier has also been carried out, 610 meters currently occupied by terminals A and B, with a 50-million-euro investment by the Port Authority, aimed at making port facilities dedicated to cruises the most modern and sustainable at an international level, particularly regarding home port operations. In addition, the redevelopment of the pier will allow the installation of systems to connect ships to the electricity grid, enabling the shutdown of on-board engines and eliminating emissions.
The agreement also includes measures to implement three sustainable mobility projects: the subdivision of the Porta bridge to improve pier mobility and its safe connection, integrating cycle and pedestrian paths with an expected investment of 90 million euros; the construction of an urban corridor along the Montjuïc coast for public transport, which will connect Plaça de les Drassanes with Marina del Prat Vermell and the Free Zone, with an expected investment of about 10 million euros; and the preparation of a study to assess the mobility generated by cruise ships as a preliminary phase to the formulation of a sustainable land mobility management plan for cruise passengers, in line with the policies adopted in high-traffic areas.
The plan will be launched in 2026 with the closure of the terminal at the Barcelona South Pier and the demolition of the current terminal C by the end of the year. The following year, construction of the new public terminal on the Adossat Pier will begin, the study to assess mobility generated by cruise ships docking at Adossat Pier will be conducted, terminal G, currently under construction, will be inaugurated, and work to double the Porta d’Europa bridge will commence. In the 2028 the new terminal C is scheduled to come into operation, the demolition of terminals A and B in the second half of the year and the start of the renovation of the section of the pier Adossat where terminals A and B are currently located as well as the installation of the OPS system for the electrification of Docks. In 2029, the urban corridor that will connect Plaça de les Drassanes with the Marina del Prat Vermell and the Free Zone and in 2023 it is the new terminal C is expected to be fully operational. In total, an investment will be allocated of 185 million euros which will be added to the 265 million euros already invested on the basis of the previous agreement between the parties signed in 2018. On the occasion of today’s signing of the agreement, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, highlighted that, for the first time in history, there is a limit to the growth of cruises in the city” and expressed gratitude to the port for “the effort of understanding and empathy”, recognizing that the growth of this business segment cannot be infinite and must be limited. Recalling that from 2018 to 2024 the number of cruise passengers has increased by +20% since the last protocol signed between the port and the Municipality has not set limits of capacity, the mayor underlined that “the current tourism management involves setting boundaries and managing better”.
