Sources: Port of Barcelona; Creuers del Port de Barcelona S.A.; Palacruceros.
The port of Barcelona is the major cruise port in Europe and among the biggest in the world. Used for both home-porting and transit calls, the port hosts over 3 m. passenger movements per year. In 2019, it recorded 800 cruise calls, 875.600 home-porting passengers, and 1.384.696 transit passengers. The port facilitates cruise activities via the operation of several terminals of various sizes. The larger terminals accommodating the biggest cruise vessels are concessioned by the Port Authority of Barcelona to terminal operators. The Port Authority only operates some of the smaller cruise facilities.
Founded in 1999, Creuers del Port de Barcelona S.A. (Creuers) operates five public cruise terminals at the port of Barcelona: Terminal A, B, C at Adossat pier; and Terminal North & Terminal South at the World Trade Center. In the second half of the 2000s, Terminal A was demolished and a larger facility was built, which has the capacity to serve mega cruise ships. In 2014, Global Ports Holding acquired the majority of Creuers and became the largest cruise port operator in the World.
Palacruceros, which is owned by the Carnival group, is the operator of two cruise terminals. Terminal D – Palacruceros was opened in 2007, and the total amount invested in its construction has been wholly financed by the Italian company, Costa Crociere. Since then, the terminal has operated under a private concession that guarantees preference to Carnival Corporation ships. Helix Cruise Center is the newest 12,500m² cruise terminal of the port. Completed in 2018, it is considered among the state-of-the-art cruise terminals of the world and is also concessioned to Pacrucreros.