The relevant authorities of the government in Barcelona have revealed that they will be implementing a bunch of new rules for cruise ships by the end of this month.
A set of new restrictions will be introduced solely for cruise ships, which will include caps as well as dock closures.
Another important change that the authorities will be making will be to close the city center to all cruise ships.
Shutting down
As per the announcement, the giant vessels will no longer have permission to dock at Muelle Barcelona Norte, which is the northern dock of the city, also known as the World Trade Center.
In addition, the only location where they will be allowed to stop Is Moll d’Adossat pier, which is located in the southern region of the Catalonian capital.
This new stop will take passengers 30 minutes to get to the city center if they choose to take a shuttle.
Meanwhile, the daily capacity of cruise ships will be further minimized to seven in a day, while the authorities had previously allowed 10.
The new rules are likely to come into effect starting from the 22nd of October and will be implemented to combat overtourism and pollution.
Limiting cruises
There is no denying that the city of Barcelona is well-known for being the busiest cruise port in all of Europe.
Every year, it welcomes over 2.7 million passengers, which also led to the Transport & Environment NGO group naming it the worst cruise port for air pollution on the continent.
For a while now, the relevant authorities have been trying to minimize the impact that cruise ships have.
Thus, an agreement was drawn up between the city council and the Port of Barcelona in 2018. Together, the two parties decided that they would combat the negative impact that the cruise industry was having on the residents and tourists alike.
In 2022, the Mayor at the time, Ada Colau, went on to voice her support for daily caps on the ships, noting that around 40% of cruise ships make stops in the city for four hours.
She went on to add that these ships do not offer an economic return to Barcelona, and with a large number of passengers disembarking, they create mobility issues.
According to the relevant authorities, caps on cruise ships will minimize the impact that overtourism has on locals and slash exhaust emissions in the heart of the city.
Transformation
With the help of the new rules, the authorities in Barcelona will be diverting more than 300 ferries and cruises in a year from the Nord wharf in the city.
Located in the World Trade Center, Barcelona Nord Wharf welcomed its most recent ship on the 2nd of October.
As a result of the diversion, around 630 meters of quay line will be freed up and will be developed into several public spaces for the residents and tourists to enjoy without polluting.
Meanwhile, the Port of Barcelona has also announced plans to invest a significant sum of money to electrify Adossat wharf and limit the emissions produced by the ships that are docked at the port.
