Same business and different scenarios. In the spotlight, cruise tourism, of which the employer Foment del Treball proposed yesterday to address its “lights and shadows” in a colloquium in which Barcelona was not present but Palamós and Tarragona were, two destinations where administration and the private sector go hand in hand to get the most out of an activity they want to see grow. They also sat at the table of Foment Intercruises and MSC World Europe, in which the general director did refer to Barcelona, ??to his commitment to the city, to the possibility of growth in the off-season and to the necessary collaboration with the administration to reduce negative impacts.
“What is fundamental is that the tourism sector and the administration continue to work to implement practices that minimize the effects on the environment,” said Miquel Gotanegra, president of the Tourism Promotion Commission, after insisting on “the importance and economic development potential of cruise tourism”. Silvia Romero, head of the Palamós City Council’s Economic and Tourism Promotion Area, and Marta Farrero, director of the Tourism Board of the Tarragona County Council, boasted of this public-private collaboration. This administration has been part, for more than a decade, of the Mesa de Creuers “in which councils, institutions, Port Aventura, the URV and other entities work with the port to promote this activity, which serves us to diversify our offer and deseasonalize it”.
In Palamós, the complicity between the ports of the Generalitat, town councils and tourism boards has led to the creation of the Costa Brava Cruise Ports brand to promote itself. Both destinations work to gain market share. Tarragona strengthens its weight as a base port: “Our goal is to achieve an increase in economic impact; in 2022, 28% of cruise passengers extended their stay and in 2019, 23% had done so”, indicated Farrero. In Palamós, a port of call, the aim is to retain cruise passengers in the area with a catalog of increasingly unique and exclusive excursions and experiences, “they are tourists very interested in culture and gastronomy, we want them to visit us of prescribers and that they return”, explained Silvia Romero.
The magnitude of the figures in both cases has little to do with the reality of Barcelona. While Tarragona plans to receive 58 cruises this year (with around 118,000 tourists on board) and Palamós, 56 (with smaller ships and 56,000 passengers), in Barcelona the forecasts are 830 cruises this year. In July alone, 78 ships will arrive in the city.
The academic director of the UB Chair of Tourism, Hospitality and Gastronomy CETT, Eugeni Osácar, in charge of conducting the colloquium, presented the speakers with challenges such as “achieving an increase in the economic and social return to the cities and territories involved and, at the same time, reduce the negative impacts, both environmentally and from the use of public space”. In this area, the general manager of MSC World Europa, Fernando Pacheco, emphasized that “until the summer of 2024 our most sustainable ship, the MSC World Europa, will embark and disembark in the city every week” and explained who hope to inaugurate their own cruise terminal “which will be at the forefront of sustainability” in 2024. Regarding the growth of activity in the city, he placed it out of season: “Now in the summer we have four boats a week and in the winter, two”. Anja Wilde, from Intercruise, indicated other ways to minimize the impact of overcrowding in Barcelona by promoting unique excursions outside the city “and with simple things, such as varying the timetables of the excursions to the emblematic places that everyone wants to visit such as the Sagrada Família, Park Güell and the Gothic”. Among the options to improve the image of the sector, Nuria Aparicio, director general of the Association of Barcelona Open Merchants, suggested “that the economic impact of this industry be better explained in all areas. For example, where do they buy fruit and vegetables? We are not explaining this well”.
