In full recovery of cruises – this 2023 is expected to close with very high figures that could even be a record – and a few days after the establishment of the new City Council and a change of mayor – Jaume Collboni is clearly more favorable than Ada Colau to this activity -, the port of Barcelona is reactivating what will be its seventh and last terminal, the G, to accommodate these large ships, an infrastructure that the former mayor’s team considered leaving in a drawer The board of directors of the institution chaired by Lluís Salvadó yesterday gave the green light to the resumption of the public tender to build and exploit it. This installation will complete the plan that the port authority and the municipal government agreed in 2018 to concentrate this entire sector on the Adossat dock and, thus, move it away from the urban core.
Terminal G was originally conceived for Royal Caribbean. Some time later, other shipping companies – Norwegian Cruise Line, Viking Ocean Cruises and Virgin Cruises – showed interest, so the port called a competition in November to determine who would build and manage it. But, in March, he had to withdraw the tender, after the latter companies complained that the bases favored the first. Once the relevant corrections have been made, the process now resumes. So far the interested parties are the same: Catalonia Cruise Terminal C, SL, belonging to the Royal Caribbean group, and a consortium formed by the other three firms.
The decision has been taken without the City Council having expressed reluctance in the face of future increases in cruise activity thanks to the change of mayor. In the last days of her time as mayor, Colau raised the need to limit – which in practice meant reducing – the number of tourists who arrive in the city via this route to avoid crowds of people in certain areas, which are very tense , and reduce pollution, following in the footsteps of other cities such as Venice or Palma. The already former councilwoman demanded a negotiation with the port itself and the other administrations to address the matter. A first and only meeting was held, in July, in which she was left alone defending a cut. Their initial proposal was that they could dock no 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 represent a 50% reduction on the figures so far record , those of 2019.
In May, another meeting was held, this time of the Sustainability Council, a new table promoted by the port in which shipping companies also participate. The then deputy mayor Janet Sanz suggested not building terminal G and not renewing the concession of 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 effective the reduction defended by Colau, which in any case required a review of the 2018 agreement that she herself had signed as mayor with Sixte Cambra, who presided over the port.
The arrival of Collboni in the mayor’s office completely changes the position of the City Council. The new mayor is in favor of applying the 2018 agreement in its entirety and, instead of limiting the arrival of cruise ships, encourage those that have Barcelona as their base port – of embarkation or disembarkation, start or end, which currently account for 58% of the total, and are the ones that leave the most income in the city – compared to those on stopovers, who only spend a few hours in the city and generate more inconvenience than profit. He also advocates seeking to improve the distribution of these tourists around the city, to avoid crowds in the same places and at the same times, for example with new bus routes.
Until now Sanz was the counselor. In yesterday’s session there was no representation because it has not yet been designated who will assume this role (it could be agreed in today’s government commission). The ones with the most numbers are the deputy mayors Laia Bonet, responsible for Urbanism, or Jordi Valls, who heads the economic area and is very knowledgeable in this area, as he was the president of the port authority from 2007 to 2011.
The future terminal G will be ready to receive the largest cruise ships in the world, up to 400 meters in length. It will have an area of ??about 54,000 m2 and a dock line of 450 meters. The terms of reference for the competition stipulate that the successful tenderer must provide significant base port traffic, which as has been said before is what the city is most interested in. Many of its passengers extend their stay in Barcelona with several nights in a hotel before embarking or after disembarking and tend to go shopping, go to restaurants, visit museums, enjoy shows…
Other conditions for the competition are the incorporation of important environmental improvements such as the use of renewable energy in the terminal or the launch of services that facilitate the sustainable mobility of passengers, such as a bus service that connects the terminal with El Prat airport or Sants station, for example. It should be taken into account that all ships built after 2010 will have to connect to the electricity grid once they are docked through the OPS (onshore power supply) systems that will be installed throughout the Adossat dock – the Last month, tenders were issued for the construction of the new submarine connection from the Energia pier, and the concessionaire will have to facilitate the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The concentration of all the cruise ships at the Adossat pier has other actions underway. The works for the superstructure on which the sixth cruise terminal – MSC’s H – and a new station for ferries (or Ro-Pax, vehicles and passengers) will be built were tendered last month. This land will have 631 linear meters.
