In full recovery of the cruises -this 2023 is expected to close with very high figures that could even be record- and a few days after the new City Council was constituted and a change of mayor has taken place -Jaume Collboni is clearly more favorable than Ada Colau to this activity – the port of Barcelona reactivates what will be its seventh and last terminal, the G, to accommodate these large ships, an infrastructure that the former mayor’s team proposed to leave in a drawer. The board of directors of the institution chaired by Lluís Salvadó has given the green light this Wednesday to the resumption of the public tender to build and operate it. This installation will complete the plan that the port authority and the municipal government agreed on in 2018 to concentrate this entire sector on the Adossat wharf and, thus, move it away from the urban center.
Terminal G was originally conceived for Royal Caribbean. Some time later, other shipping companies –Norwergian Cruise Line, Viking Ocean Cruises and Virgin Cruises– showed their interest in it, so that the port, last November, called a contest to determine who would build and manage it. But, in March, he had to withdraw the tender, after the latter denounced that the bases favored the former. Once the pertinent corrections have been made, the process now resumes. So far, the interested parties are the same: Catalonia Cruise Terminal C, S.L., belonging to the Royal Caribbean group, and a consortium made up of the other three companies.
The decision has been made without the City Council expressing reluctance in the face of future increases in cruise activity thanks to the change of mayor’s office. In the last days of her time as mayoress, Colau raised the need to limit – which in practice meant reducing – the number of tourists who come to the city by this route to avoid crowds of people in certain areas, which are highly stressed, and reduce pollution, following in the footsteps of other cities such as Venice or Palma. The already former mayor called for a negotiation with the port itself and the rest of the administrations to address the matter. A first and only meeting was held, last July, in which she was left alone defending a cut. His initial proposal was that they could not dock more than three ships a day and in a month receive a maximum of 200,000 people or 10,000 per day, which in the high season would mean a 50% reduction on the figures hitherto record, the of 2019.
Another meeting was held in May, this time by the Sustainability Council, a new table promoted by the port in which the shipping companies also participate. The then deputy mayor Janet Sanz proposed not building Terminal G and not renewing the concession for Terminal C, operated by Creuers del Port de Barcelona, ??which expires next year. Thus, instead of seven maritime stations for cruises, the city would end up having five. It was a formula to make the reduction defended by Colau effective, which, in any case, made it necessary to review the 2018 agreement that she herself signed as mayor with Sixte Cambra, who presided over the port.
The arrival of Collboni to the mayor’s office completely changes the position of the City Council. The new mayor is in favor of applying the 2018 agreement to its full extent and, instead of limiting the arrival of cruise ships, encouraging those that have Barcelona as their base port – of embarkation or disembarkation, start or end, which currently account for 58%. of the total and they are the ones that leave the most income in the city – compared to those of stopover, who only spend a few hours in the city and generate more inconvenience than benefits. He also defends seeking a better distribution of these tourists throughout the city, avoiding crowds in the same places and at the same times, for example with new bus routes.
The municipal government is in the administration council of the port. Until now, Sanz was the counselor. In yesterday’s session there was no representation because it has not yet been designated who will assume that role (it could be agreed in today’s government commission). Those with the most numbers are the deputy mayors Laia Bonet, responsible for Urban Planning, or Jordi Valls, who heads the economic area and is very knowledgeable in this field since he was the president of the port authority from 2007 to 2011.
The future terminal G will be prepared to receive the world’s largest cruise ships, up to 400 meters in length. It will have an area of ??about 54,000 square meters and a quay line of 450 meters. The bidding documents for the tender establish that the successful bidder will have to provide significant traffic from the base port, which, as has been said before, is the one that interests the city the most. Many of its passengers extend their stay in Barcelona with several hotel nights before boarding or after disembarking and they usually go shopping, go to restaurants, visit museums, enjoy shows…
Other conditions for the tender are the incorporation of important environmental improvements such as the use of renewable energy in the terminal or the implementation of services that facilitate the sustainable mobility of passengers, such as a bus service that connects the terminal with the El Salvador airport. Prat or Sants station, for example. It should be taken into account that all ships built after 2010 will have to be connected to the electricity grid once they are berthed through the OPS (onshore power supply) systems that will be installed throughout the Adossat dock – last month the construction of the new submarine connection from the Energia pier– and the concessionaire will also have to facilitate the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The concentration of all cruise ships at the Adossat pier has other actions underway. The works of the superstructure in which the sixth cruise terminal will be built – the H, of MSC – and a new station for ferries (or Ro-Pax, vehicles and passengers) were put out to tender last month. This land will have 631 linear meters.
