The port of Palamós launched its cruise season yesterday with the arrival, early in the morning, of the Marella Discovery 2. On board were 1,900 passengers, mostly British. Most took advantage of the stopover to visit Pals and Peratallada, others preferred hiking along the Camí de Ronda and there were still some who went to Tossa de Mar. In the afternoon, the ship set sail for Palma de Mallorca. It is the first of the 50 cruise ships that are scheduled to dock in this port this season. As many, 55 specifically, the port of Tarragona expects to receive in a season already very similar to that of 2019, in which records were broken.
Far from the figures handled by Barcelona, which closed last year with 1.6 million cruise passengers (68.5% of those it had in 2019, before the pandemic), Palamós expects 50,000 passengers throughout the season ( until mid-December) and Tarragona at 98,000. These two ports have established themselves as alternatives for cruise passengers who travel the Mediterranean but who have already visited Barcelona. In this circuit, and with smaller ships, the port of Roses is also added, which will begin the season on April 27 and which awaits around a thousand cruise passengers spread over six stops.
The estimated economic impact of the activity of these cruises on the Costa Brava is five million, as reported yesterday by the Department of Territory based on a study by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). This report calculates that each passenger who disembarks at a port with a stopover spends an average of 90 euros. The ports of Palamós and Roses receive cruises from the North American and European markets in equal parts and this year, nine of the scheduled cruises will call at the Costa Brava for the first time. The figures forecast in the port of Palamós represent 13% more passengers and 11% fewer stopovers compared to last year. 62% of cruise ships will arrive during the low season and 38% will arrive during the summer.
In Tarragona, the season kicked off last Thursday with the luxury cruise ship Silver Moon, from the Miami-based group Royal Caribbean, which had never called in the city before. Coming from Palma de Mallorca, this ship, 213 meters long and built in 2020, has a capacity for 596 passengers and a program of activities that revolves around the culinary culture of each destination where it stops. In Tarragona she arrived first thing in the morning and set sail at eleven at night.
Until mid-December, the port anticipates the arrival of 55 cruise ships and with them, 98,000 visitors. A figure very similar to that of before the pandemic, when 100,000 cruise passengers were reached. The explosion of this activity in an eminently industrial and oil port such as Tarragona occurred in 2017 when the arrival of this type of ship doubled from 20 cruise ships in 2016 to 40 that year.
After the pandemic hit, activity began to recover in 2021 in Tarragona with just five stopovers. The port is currently building a new cruise terminal that is expected to be operational starting next season, during 2024.
