MARTÍ PUIG
Barcelona (EFE) place the America’s Cup sailing and there may be movements with the Hermitage project.
The economic engine of Catalonia -it contributes 2% of its gross added value (VAB) and 1.4% of employment-, the Port of Barcelona concentrates 74% of Catalan maritime traffic and 23% of the state traffic. In 2022 it has reached a record turnover and total traffic, with a profit of 181 million euros and 70.9 million tons transported.
Partly integrated into the city -Port Vell is the best example of this-, it does not need to expand its facilities -although it does need to grow within its current limits- after having diverted the course of the Llobregat years ago.
The State administration, the Generalitat, the Barcelona and El Prat city councils and representatives of chambers of commerce, companies and unions participate in its governance, which limits the controversies that surround it, unlike what happens with the Airport, managed by Aena (listed company 51% owned by the State).
However, the infrastructure chaired today by Lluís Salvadó (ERC) does not escape the political struggle.
The recurring debate about cruise ships
In Barcelona, 3.1 million cruise passenger movements were registered in 2019, before the pandemic, figures that, according to the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), correspond to 2.2 million tourists.
The ones who have insisted the most on curbing this type of tourism, beyond the CUP, are the common ones led by the current mayoress, Ada Colau: thus, the city council and the Port agreed in 2018 to limit the cruise terminals to seven and locate them in the Adosado Pier , that is, in the direction of the Airport and away from the city center.
However, the municipal government is now demanding to eliminate two of these terminals (one of them still to be built), since it calculates that in 2024 there will be 4 million cruise passenger movements, which it sees as “unsustainable”. The Port, on the other hand, refers to the 2018 pact.
Where the parties do agree is to work so that Barcelona is a ‘base’ port -of departure or arrival- for cruise ships, to prevent these tourists from spending just a few hours in the city, most of them concentrated in the center.
According to CLIA, 4.1% of the tourists who will visit Barcelona this year will be cruise passengers and will leave 13% of the tourist tax collected in the city. The planned stopovers in the Port are around 800, the same as last year.
Illusion around the Sailing America’s Cup
Where there is greater unanimity is the momentum that the Sailing America’s Cup can generate, whose main competition will take place from August 2024, although preparations are already underway.
The organizers chose Barcelona thanks to the commitment of important business sectors in the city and the support of all the administrations, and it is expected that this great sporting event, the third with the most television audience worldwide after the Olympic Games and the World Cup , generate an economic impact of 1,200 million euros and 19,000 jobs, according to estimates by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
If the 1992 Olympics opened Barcelona to the sea, the America’s Cup will accelerate the transformation of the Port of Barcelona: a total investment of 106 million euros is expected to modernize facilities, half public and the other half private, but no new ones will be built infrastructure, as Valencia did when it hosted this event.
As in those long-ago Olympic Games, Barcelona is preparing a grand inaugural event to welcome citizens to this competition, as revealed to EFE by the general director of the Barcelona Capital Nautical Foundation (FBCN), Ignasi Armengol.
The Hermitage, on hold
An issue that has caused controversy in recent years, even within the municipal government -with the commoners against it and the socialists in favor-, is the project to install a Hermitage museum in Barcelona, specifically at the foot of the Hotel W .
The Hermitage Museum company, 80% controlled by the Swiss-Luxembourg investment fund Varia, took the first steps to land in Barcelona more than a decade ago and in May 2021 obtained authorization from the Port to locate this museum in its facilities, which that it was subject to the signing of an agreement with the City Council, which the consistory refused to sign.
The project is judicialized and the promoters have announced their resignation, although the authorization of the Port continues to be granted, with which a change at the head of the municipal government could give rise to new movements.
At the same time, the new Liceu Mar project, which would also be established in the Port facilities, has won integers: the Gran Teatre del Liceu plans to hold an ideas contest during the fourth quarter of this year, according to what the president of the institution, Salvador, recently pointed out. Germany.