Barcelona, capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia situated on the northeastern coast of Spain is planning to limit cruise tourism with a reduction of its port capacity to control the rising number of tourists visiting the city.
This decision is the result of an agreement between Barcelona City Council and the city's Port, and it comes after years of concern over overcrowding caused by cruise passengers who often arrive in large group and lead to sudden spikes in congestion.
In a commitment to a more sustainable model, the local city council announced that the number will be brought down from seven to five terminals to make cruise tourism more organised and sustainable, reducing its cruise reception capacity by 16% and reorganising its port infrastructure.
With a public - private investment of €185 million, this plan marks a turning point in the management of maritime tourism, betting on quality over quantity, and consolidating Barcelona as a European benchmark in responsible tourism regulation.
The project focuses in the elimination of three old terminals and the construction of a new one, which is more efficient and has less environmental impact.
Currently the port of Barcelona has seven terminals, six operational and one under construction, but between 2026 and 2030 it will have five, demolishing terminals A, B, and C, which together had a capacity for 12.800 passengers.
A new Terminal C will be built, with capacity for 7.000 cruise passengers and suitable to receive several ships simultaneously.
The new design seeks to limit the maximum flow of passengers to 31.000 people per day by 2030, avoiding tourism collapse and mitigating the effect of overtourism in the Catalan capital.
If this measure had not been implemented, it is estimated that the port would have reached a capacity of 37,000 simultaneous cruise passengers in just two years, boosted by the opening of Terminal G, operated by the company Royal Caribbean.
In the project is also included the development of a coastal mobility corridor near the port to improve movements for public transport, taxis, bicycles and pedestrians.
The new infrastructure, which will be ready in 2028, will prioritise the embarkation and disembarkation of cruise ships that start or end their routes in Barcelona, as well as luxury or premium ships with a capacity of less than a thousand passengers. This category already represents a quarter of the total cruise passenger traffic in the Catalan city.
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