While the president of the Port of Barcelona responds to EL PERIÓDICO, 40 people hold a technical session to outline the objectives of the Consell per a la Sostenibilitat dels Creuers. Lluis Salvado (La Ràpita, 1969) is aware that the cruise ship debate It will intensify due to the municipal elections on May 28, although he prescribes dialogue and consensus to move forward, two formulas that are working for the Sailing America’s Cup and the completion of rail and road access projects.
-2022 was a year of records for the institution. What do you expect from 2023?
– Maritime transport is extraordinarily linked to the dynamics of the global economy. If it grows, we grow. 2022 was a year of post-covid recovery, with figures that had never been achieved before. This year we have started weaker in the first four months but the sector’s expectations are not only to recover that margin but also higher growth.
-In all fields?
-The war in Ukraine causes the liquefied natural gas segment to take on a lot of prominence and since we have the largest regasification plant in Europe in Barcelona, it benefits us. Another sector with very positive dynamics is the import of electric vehicles, since in 10 years there will be a very important renewal of the fleet. Today, if we are able to maintain efficiency as a port and competitiveness as an infrastructure, we have a great future as a gateway for this type of vehicle to Europe.
-And in the cruises?
-We hope to maintain the 800 stopovers of last year, but the volume of passengers will depend on the occupancy of the ships.
-In the next year and a half, Port Vell will face an enormous transformation due to the Sailing America’s Cup.
-The America’s Cup of sailing leaves a very explicit first legacy as it happily forces us to update Port Vell and present the best possible face so that in August of next year it will be a more welcoming infrastructure. This has led both the port authority and private concessionaires to invest up to 106 million euros, half public and half private.
-Initially there had been talk of 86 million in 16 projects.
-Yes, but more and more initiatives are being added with improvements that will make us take a leap forward in the reordering of spaces, which forces us to think about what the future of Port Vell will be like.
“The improvements in the port due to the arrival of the America’s Cup for sailing already exceed 106 million euros& rdquor;
-How will it be done?
-Beyond the America’s Cup, we have started a strategic plan for Port Vell that orders what we are doing and is consistent with the projects that the City Council has promoted on the seafront.
-For example?
It is essential that the main road axes that go to the port are well linked: Via Laietana, Ramblas, Paral·lel, Barceloneta… how we share with the city council that the physical barrier that they represent today can be overcome and that there is more proximity and connectivity, more permeable.
-Barcelona will experience a great change in this area.
-Barcelona has many attractions, but one of the differential elements is the sea. The Olympics made the city take a qualitative leap and now the Copa América must be this boost linked to the blue economy, which will be another great opportunity. The city begins to advance within the port in the area of the sheds, later on in the Morrot and the objective of the reformed and accessible Moll de Pescadors; also the World Trade Center or the reform of the Moll Oriental.
-When will the cruise ships be fully transferred to the Moll Adossat?
-The last ones will leave at the end of the year, within the 2018 agreement between the then president of Port Sixte Cambra and the mayoress Ada Colau. The cruises leave the Moll Barcelona, they move away from the city, it is ordered and seven terminals with concessions are located there. There are three that are public and then there are those of the shipping companies, some in the process of being built, which will finish in three years.
-So that there are more cruises that have Barcelona as a base and not as a stopover.
-The terminals will be more dignified and that will make us gain competitiveness. In order to grow as a base port, it is necessary to offer quality and leadership.
-There are other spaces in the port where decisions still have to be made.
-In the case of the Morrot, it will be linked to the opening of the new road and railway accesses and, in the Moll Oriental sheds, next to the Hotel W, we are talking about three 30,000-square-meter warehouses that we will rehabilitate and we can allocate to economic projects blue. We also have to reflect on what we will do with the place that the Hermitage should occupy, there will be a walk and we want it to be a space for citizens and not for tourism. Maremagnum and Imax with the Liceo project, the same. You have to shake it up, rethink the road axes and see how it affects the port.
-As for the accesses, there is also the connection with the Marina del Prat Vermell, What the City Council has announced and that affects port lands.
-It is working in a coordinated manner and we share the objective, it is also closely linked to the reform of the Ronda Litoral, although we are still waiting to have the projects.
-In what situation are the rail and road accesses?
-They go together. The great project for the future of the Port of Barcelona from now until 2030 are the new accesses from the south and represent an investment of 760 million euros, which must be carried out in five years because we need to make a qualitative leap in connectivity railway to improve our competitiveness.
They’ve been waiting a long time.
-The protocol signed by the administrations in 2020 has resulted in the drafting of the basic projects and the configuration of work teams, with good cooperation. We hope that in 2023 we will have the projects awarded. It affects different areas: Adif, roads, the railway, you have to coordinate on environmental issues… It is a very dense space, it has enormous complexity.
– Is there no progress in rail fee?
-Right now we are at 14%, which is a very high percentage, no other port in the Mediterranean has an equal figure. In 2005 we had 2% but we have already reached the ceiling and with the infrastructure we have we cannot grow, it is essential that accesses be made, to face the essential decarbonization of transport.
-Is there progress on the environmental rate of the Generalitat?
-We present allegations just like the Port of Tarragona and we have met with the Ministry of Economy to try to reach an agreement. That the will to be environmentally demanding be combined and that the ports can compete. The bill must still be drawn up, which will go to the Government and then to the Parliament.
-With the increase in the tourist tax for cruise passengers, have you detected a cooling of interest in Barcelona?
-We are not aware.
“We cannot ignore a certain public discomfort with cruise ships and we want to give answers & rdquor;
-And how do you value it?
-Cruises are a significant activity for the port and for Barcelona, with its positive and negative elements. Our role as a port authority is to manage it: minimize the negative and promote return to the city. From the Port of Barcelona we want to help this fit between the cruise activity and the city and that is why we are promoting the Consell per a la Sostenibilitat dels creuers with 50 measures.
-What will it be used for?
-We do it for transparency, to give the maximum amount of information and before the summer it will work. We have to do many things, there is room for improvement, there is a desire on the part of the city and the sector to find that fit. From the Port of Barcelona we want to be the pivot that pivots and coordinates initiatives that will surely allow the perception people have of cruise ships to improve significantly in a couple of years. Cruise ships have to change many things, as well as the port and the city. We’ll roll up our sleeves.
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Is reducing cruise passengers an option? as requested by the mayoress Colau?
“If you agree on seven terminals there are 100 million investment behind it and in 2017 the future of cruises in Barcelona was determined, you have to be aware of this”
-It is important to know the rules of the game. When you have given a concession to a shipping company as a result of a 2018 agreement, you cannot go back. If you agree on seven terminals, there are seven concessions and behind each of them there are 100 million euros of public and private investment and at that moment the future of cruises in Barcelona was determined and you have to be aware of that. However, we cannot ignore a certain discomfort on the part of the citizens and the Port wants to respond.