Cruise passenger traffic at Barcelona's port 1990-2023

The number of cruise passengers handled in the port of Barcelona bounced back to approximately 3.6 million in 2023, after the harsh impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The cruise passenger traffic in that Spanish port plummeted by 93.7 percent and 83.4 percent in those years versus 2019.

Barcelona: among the top Spanish cruise destinations

With 807 cruise ship calls, Barcelona handled the third-largest number of cruise vessels in Spain in 2022, only after the Canary Islands’ ports. As a result, Barcelona was the leading Spanish cruise tourist hub that year, registering a difference of less than half a million passengers with that insular autonomous community.

The recovery of cruise tourism in Spain after COVID-19

In 2022, Spain's tourism made a strong recovery from the pandemic, although monthly cruise passenger numbers remained below 2019 levels. October stood out with over 1.2 million cruise travelers in Spanish ports. Meanwhile, Barcelona saw a 63 percent increase in ferry passengers, reaching a decades-high of nearly 1.6 million, and over 800 cruise ships, a significant rebound from the previous year, which had been heavily impacted by the pandemic.