Practically all cruise passengers who go to Barcelona for a few hours and visit the city step on the Rambla and its surroundings, where they spend an average of one hour and five minutes. Of these 65 minutes, 48 are walking. The second place that doesn't fail is Plaça Catalunya, followed by Passeig de Gràcia, where tourists spend half an hour. The Sagrada Família closes the top itinerary for cruise passengers, as confirmed by the most accurate map of its movements that has been made so far.
Under the auspices of the Visitmob project (led by the Rovira i Virgili University), researchers distributed 800 geolocation devices to monitor all the movements that cruise passengers in transit make during the five hours on average they visit the city, from the time they leave the port and until the return. The result puts concrete numbers and scenarios to a reality already known in the city and, in this way, becomes a useful tool to manage visitor flows and reduce the least desired effects.
How do cruise ships move? The first section, from the ship to the exit of the port, the most used means of transport is the Cruise Bus. This blue bus (3 euros one way and 4.5 euros return) connects the cruise terminals, at Moll Adossat, with Moll Barcelona, next to the World Trade Center (WTC). 70.5% of cruise passengers use the bus, while 20.2% prefer to travel by taxi and 7.4% travel on foot.
Once at the WTC, the journey through the city begins. GPS data shows that cruise passengers spend an average of two hours and 25 minutes walking around Barcelona, which is a little more than half of their visit time. The walk inevitably passes through La Rambla and the adjacent streets, forced to absorb all the flow.
In addition to walking, the tourist bus (with a stop at the WTC, next to the Cruise Bus) is consolidated as the means of transport most used by cruise passengers (chosen by 32.8%), followed by the taxi (18, 7%), the metro (16.8%) and, at a considerable distance, the city bus, which is used by 5.5% of cruise passengers.
GPS devices draw a very clear map, in which La Rambla and Ciutat Vella take the lead. The second most frequented center for these tourists, who squeeze as much as they can into the average visit of just over five hours, is the Sagrada Família and its surroundings, where 63.1% of the group passes. In the distance there are other more specific targets, such as Barceloneta, Park Güell and Camp Nou. From the information that emerges from the surveys, these options fit in with the fact that approximately half of the cruise passengers have already been to the city before and visit other spaces beyond Ciutat Vella. 78% of the respondents state that their goal is a space of cultural or recreational interest, followed by wandering aimlessly (46%), shopping (37%) and eating in a restaurant (35%). Only 7% state that they have rested in a public space during the visit and only 5% decide to go to the beach. The study also details the profile of cruise passengers and the average expenditure, of 43 euros per person. By nationality, the Americans are the ones who are more above the average, with an expenditure of 52 euros per person, and the British are the ones who spend the least, 35 euros on average.
The mobility of cruise passengers is just one of the sections of the Visitmob project, which also tracks the movements of tourists who spend the night in the city and one-day visitors who stay outside of Barcelona. As part of the Barcelona Science Plan 2020-2023, the project is promoted by Barcelona City Council and co-financed by Fundació La Caixa. Aaron Gutiérrez, member of the Territorial Analysis and Tourism Studies Research Group (GRATET) of the URV, directs the Vistmob, with which researchers from the UOC, ISGlobal, the UIC, Ostelea and Eurecat also collaborate.
