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In the current year Spain has ambitions to beat its cruise record by hosting more than 8.1 million passengers per year. The prediction is based on the estimates of various Spanish port authorities who received 7.67 million cruise passengers in 2014.
In order to reach this target, the sector professionals are first of all relying on the 2.65 million travelers expected to travel from the port of Barcelona, where Carnival has confirmed an investment of 20 million euros to improve its equipment. This would allow the Catalan port to maintain its Mediterranean leadership in the context of cruises. The Catalan port will also benefit from the 25 cruises planned by the Allure of the Seas, the flagship of the Royal Caribbean cruise company.
Spain is also profiting from the rise in strength of certain harbors, especially those of the Canary Islands, which recorded more than a million cruise passengers in transit in 2014 – an increase of passengers of almost 30%.
The vitality of the harbors of Las Palmas, Tenerife and Ferrol compensates Valencia’s depression quite favorably, where cruise activity went down by 21% in 2014. This tendency is explained by the economic crisis affecting the harbor master’s offices of the Mediterranean harbor, which hopes to go back uphill this year.
The cruise industry has become a strategic section for the Spanish tourism since, according to the statistics of the last economic survey published by CLIA (Cruise Line International Association), the sector has provided Spain with 26,000 jobs, and has generated 1.25 billion euros in sales revenue. This profit becomes even more interesting when you consider that the expenditure of the clients who disembark the cruise ships (mostly from the USA) is larger than the average expenditure of all tourists, that being 114 euros per day and per person, according to the statistics of the Spanish ministry of tourism.
