Colau proposes to reduce cruise passengers from 400,000 to 200,000 per month during high season

the city takes approximately 400,000 cruise passengers per month during high season, from May to October. These are 2019 figures, and figures considered by the consortium that other administrations have not considered to be quite accurate. In any case, the advocates of the council halve that numberfrom 400,000 to 200,000 monthly in this half-year of more activity.

It also claims that never more than three times a day In the city – the border set in the Balearic Islands – there are days when six or seven people are currently concentrated in the Port of Barcelona. Likewise, the consortium advocates another possible limitation: nthe number of cruise passengers in the city does not exceed 10,000 in a day.

Mixed Commission

The painting was created in the context of the Generalitat-Consistorio joint commission at the request of the mayor Ada Colau in June. In addition to the Catalan Government, it joined the central Executive and the Port of Barcelona. These last two administrations engage in dialogue without warning the mayor. should take into account the wealth created by cruise ships. Among others, they attended the Colau meeting this Monday; Interior Minister Isidre Gavin; Benito Núñez, Director General of the Merchant Navy, and Damià Calvet, President of the Port of Barcelona.

The meeting represents the first theme in which Colau, adhering to the Balearic Islands’ example of the boundary set for cruise ships, outlines his proposal that cruise ships are basically balanced to reduce the impact of cruise ships. their environmental impact and the heaps they cause In the Catalan capital, especially in Ciutat Vella. Last week, the local government presented a report warning that volume will grow if action is not taken, and could reach 3.5 million cruise passengers per year. According to the municipal report, in 2019 Barcelona received 3.1 million all the time.

Statistics

After the meeting, it was revealed that Colau had explained the capping proposal in the numbers cited above, but the first thing he said was that administrations had to agree on these statistics, which don’t always match. This will be addressed through a working group in September.

The municipality proposal as quoted by Colau, brake cruise ships in any of the above ways: o Restriction of boats or cruise passengers or daily cruise passengers in high season. Regarding this last episode, the mayor stated that during the 180-day high season, which runs from May to October, more than 50 – the so-called red days – had 15,000 or more cruise passengers in the city, and the destination was the destination. It is to ensure that it never exceeds 10,000.

With figures for 2019, the last year before the pandemic, and a pause for tourist arrivals, around 400,000 cruise passengers per month arrived in Barcelona during this period. Colau, who favored the council, explained that the council thought the figure should be cut by half. Agreement before the start of the 2023 high season, i.e. next May. By the way, it’s the month of the next municipal elections.

positive and negative externalities

On behalf of the Generalitat, Minister of the Interior Isidre Gavín, need to reach a consensus now for cruise ships to have “maximum rigor” to their data, given the fact that the statistics of some administrations and others are different.

Gavin underlined that we had to do it. taking into account “positive and negative externalities” It has chosen to minimize the latter without forgetting that cruise tourism also exists. And as neighbors who don’t want to cruise ship should be, others can celebrate their return from the pandemic, he said. It also called for consideration of the terminal containment agreement, which was closed in 2018, which the city council found positive but insufficient.

Territori number two declined to consider Colau’s specific proposal, insisting that it would be necessary to see what the real numbers and evolution of the phenomenon were in September. Because Gavin warned that the prediction that cruise tourism is threatening continued growth is unsafe: “Estimates can be uncertain”.

Calvet reduces the effect

Port of Barcelona president Damià Calvet chose to continue improving the 2018 agreement by limiting terminals as the best way to avoid excesses. Like Gavín, he warned that existing data needed to be “updated”. And he added that the number of cruise passengers is “between 50 and 56 million” when compared to the total number of visitors Barcelona receives. ‘true impact’ of cruises 4%, ‘very small’.

Calvet made it clear in a candid but resounding tone that he did not share Colau’s thesis. He stressed that the name “red days” for the port was not equivalent to having more than 15,000 cruise passengers in the city, and did not want to comment on the capping figures, which the mayor considered “partial figures”.