The number of cruise terminals on Adossat wharf is to be cut from seven to five, with the oldest three being demolished and a new one built. A series of measures will also be rolled out to improve and mobility and render it more sustainable. The Port of Barcelona will renovate and upgrade the cruise traffic facilities, optimising spaces and adapting them to the most advanced environmental requirements.
Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona last week signed a new agreement to reorganise cruise activity and render it more sustainable. The agreement will reduce the number of cruise terminals at the Port of Barcelona and will roll out a series of projects to improve passenger mobility and make it more sustainable, moving forward in the responsible management of cruises and improving the coexistence between port activity and the city.
The central plank of the new agreement, signed by both administrations, involves reducing the number of cruise terminals from seven to five by demolishing current terminals A, B and C, and building a new terminal on the site of terminal C. The resulting terminal will be public, in other words it will be open to general use with capacity to serve 7,000 passengers at any given time.
In addition to this reorganisation and progressive reduction in the number of terminals, there will be a comprehensive overhaul of a 610-metre-long section of wharf, corresponding to current terminals A and B, to which end the Port of Barcelona will invest €50 million. These actions will make the Port's cruise facilities some of the most modern and sustainable globally, offering the essential quality of service to accommodate home port operations (where the trip begins and ends), which provide the most added value to the city and have better airport connectivity.
This transformation will configure the Adossat wharf with five cruise terminals: four are privately owned (current terminals D, E, G and H) and one will be public (the new terminal C), all of which meet the most demanding quality and sustainability standards. The new terminal will prioritise home port cruises and small vessels. The agreement signed with the City Council accelerates the Port's timetable to renovate the oldest terminals – current Terminals A, B and C – which were nearing the end of their useful life, and to build new facilities that are better suited to the current requirements of the cruise industry. Furthermore, the wharf overhaul will facilitate the installation of the onshore power supply (OPS) systems for connecting ships to the electrical grid, supplying them with green energy so that they can turn off their engines and avoid emissions from their operations.
“For the first time in history, a limit is being placed on the growth of cruises in the city,” emphasized the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who also expressed gratitude to the Port for “its effort in understanding and empathy” in recognizing that the growth of this activity cannot be infinite and needed to be reduced. The mayor also recalled that from 2018 to 2024, the number of cruise passengers increased by 20%, since the last protocol signed between the Port and the City Council did not set capacity limits. “The current management of tourism involves setting limits and managing better,” Collboni concluded.