The favored port of Barcelona, Spain, has been inundated with an unprecedented quantity of maritime site visitors.
In keeping with new numbers launched by the Port of Barcelona, cruise ship calls at the moment make up 83% of all maritime site visitors throughout the port, which is giant sufficient to accommodate as much as 10 giant ships without delay – with a model new terminal just lately opening close by in spring of 2024.
The quantity of cruise ships utilizing Spain’s capital metropolis as a homeport throughout the first half of the 12 months has elevated considerably, setting new information.
The variety of passengers has elevated by 3.9%, whereas the present variety of vessels homeporting in Barcelona represents a 20% enhance over the previous decade.
“The Barcelona cruise mannequin has taken a big leap within the first half of the 12 months, as the load of dwelling port cruises has elevated considerably in comparison with transit cruises,” mentioned Lluís Salvadó, president of the Port of Barcelona.
In simply the primary half of the 12 months, the Spanish port has welcomed 323 ships, and can doubtless finish the 12 months with a grand whole of over 700, and even 800, calls.
Afterall, Barcelona welcomed 803 ships in 2023, which carried roughly 3.5 million passengers to the provincial metropolis – breaking pre-pandemic information by 13.7%.
However even whereas reaching report highs, the variety of ship calls, and significantly from ships in transit, is trending decrease this 12 months – with numbers down by 6.6%.
Whereas the lower within the variety of calls by ships in transit is to be anticipated as extra ships are selecting to homeport in Barcelona than ever earlier than, the opposite aspect of the coin is that Barcelona has really imposed limitations on cruise ships.
Starting in October of 2023, the town banned cruise ships from docking at its northern docks – the World Commerce Middle space and the Muelle Barcelona Norte – to mitigate port congestion and overwhelming crowding on land.
The opposite function behind the brand new rule was to maintain exhaust gasses and different cruise ship-caused air pollution farther from the town middle.
Earlier in 2024, Mayor Jaume Collboni introduced plans to scale back accessible terminals for cruise ships to additional handle the continued overcrowding throughout the metropolis.
Purple Sea Disaster Contributes To Surge In Port Site visitors
Along with serving as the biggest cruise port in Europe, Barcelona is Spain’s third largest container port.
Echoing the expansion seen from cruise tourism, the Spanish port has seen a giant uptick in delivery vessels throughout the port – growing by 23.6% for the reason that starting of the 12 months.
There has additionally been a forty five% rise within the variety of transshipments, which is a posh provide chain course of that entails transporting cargo from one vessel to a different, earlier than the products make their technique to their ultimate vacation spot.
However the enhance in delivery site visitors didn’t merely occur by probability. It’s really a results of the Purple Sea disaster that started in October of 2023.
Learn Additionally: The Affect of Purple Sea Tensions on Cruising
Many cruise ships have been pressured to reroute or cancel voyages totally to keep away from the battle within the Center Jap area and the Suez Canal out of an abundance of warning.
Likewise, many delivery corporations have opted to divert from their normal routes by means of the Suez Canal with a purpose to prioritize the protection of the crew members onboard and the products they’re transporting.
In mild of this alteration, Barcelona has develop into a key delivery hub and a gateway for connecting locations all through the japanese Mediterranean.
