He defends the fact that the Catalan capital is a benchmark in the sector, its economic impact and the anti-pollution measures promoted from the port
The return of the cruises to the city has once again strained relations between the Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona. If a few days ago the mayor Ada Colau publicly proposed to study a Toll of access of these ships to the city and limit them, now he has been the president of the port, Damia Calvet, who has answered that cruise ships give a “indisputable benefit” in income and reputation for Barcelona and Catalonia.
The head of infrastructure has also ensured that the port is complying with the reduction agreed in 2018 to transfer all cruise activity to Moll Adossat, further from the city, where there will be a maximum of seven terminals. He has defended the activity in an act in which he has been asked and after the city council had revived this tourist controversy.
Calvet has highlighted that the tourism provided by these ships means 1,000 million euros of annual turnover and direct employment for 9,000 people. He has detailed that the cruise passenger has a very high average expenditure, 230 euros per person per daywhen the average tourist who arrives in Barcelona is less than 70: “He is a tourist with a lot of added value”.
He has argued that the fact that he is the Europe’s first port of callwith more than 800, implies benefits for the “reputation” of Barcelona in Europe, also underlining that the local port “does not minimize or hide” the two negative factors of the arrival of cruise ships (they account for 10.6% of the total traffic infrastructure): the punctual overcrowding in certain areas of the city near the sea and the contaminationEurope Press reports.
Sustainability policies
On the first point, he assured that there is “constant work” with the city council, through Barcelona Tourism, to study possibilities of redistributing the tourists who arrive, through the ‘shuttle’ buses provided by the port. About they emissionshas said that the port is “completely decoupled” from the problem at the Catalan level, representing 0.7% of the total greenhouse gases.
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He recalled that the Port of Barcelona requires cruise ships to emit a maximum of 0.1% of sulfur oxides (a lower percentage than is legal and recommended by the WHO), and that cruise ships account for 0.73% of the total Catalan emissions of nitrogen oxides and 0.23% of polluting particles.
Calvet has also disfigured the town hall that announced the shops open on sundays between May 15 and September 15 and then question tourism: “You can’t start generating claims and then pretend to limit”.