Madrid 31 (Europa Press) –
The Spanish ports are set to achieve a new historic milestone in 2024, as indicated in a recent announcement.
The previous record in Spain was established in 2023, with just over 12 million cruise passengers and 4,500 vessels, surpassing pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
Consequently, the overall passenger traffic in Spain for 2024, encompassing both regular lines and cruises, reached a total of 40.8 million travellers—28 million from regular lines and an additional 12.8 million from cruises. This overall number marks a 4% increase compared to 2023.
In December, the number of passengers (both regular and cruise) exceeded 2.7 million (+9.4%). Of these, 1.8 million were transported via regular lines (+3.4%), while 914,468 were cruise passengers (+23.6%). Additionally, 371 ships docked, which is 76 more than the same month in 2023.
Among the total cruise passengers in 2024, the majority arrived at the port of Barcelona (3.6 million, an increase of +2.4% compared to 2023). This was followed by the Balearic Islands (2.5 million, a decrease of -0.8%), Las Palmas (1.8 million, an increase of +23.7%), and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1.3 million, an increase of +19%).
In terms of cruise arrivals, the port of Barcelona was the busiest, welcoming 791 ships throughout the previous year (-1.6%), ahead of the Balearic Islands port (774 ships and +2.1%), Las Palmas (735 ships and +15%), and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (590 ships and +10.3%).
