Barcelona moves to limit cruise tourism by reducing terminals from 7 to 5

Barcelona City Council and the Port of Barcelona have signed a protocol to reduce the number of cruise terminals from seven to five and improve access to and from the port area.

Specifically, the three oldest terminals at Moll Adossat – terminals A, B, and C – will be demolished, and a single new terminal will be built at the site of the current terminal C.

That new terminal will be Barcelona's only public cruise terminal, open for all, and will be able to serve up to 7,000 passengers at once.

It will prioritize homeport cruises – cruises that start and/or end in Barcelona – and smaller ships.

Barcelona Mayor, Jaume Collboni, said the initiative marked a historic first: "Today, for the first time in history, a limit is being placed on the growth of cruise ships in Barcelona."

The change will reduce Barcelona's maximum cruise capacity by 16%, from 37,000 to 31,000 passengers per day.

Emission-free berths

In a joint press conference at World Trade Center Barcelona, Mayor Collboni and the president of the Port of Barcelona, José Alberto Carbonell, outlined the details of the agreement, which will reshape the port between 2026 and 2030.

When works are complete, Moll Adossat will have five cruise terminals: four private (the current terminals D, E, G, and H) and one public (the new terminal C).

Along with a restructure of the terminals, the port will invest €50 million in a full renovation of a 610‑metre section of the quay, the site of the current A and B terminals.

This will enable the installation of onshore power supply (OPS) systems, allowing ships to plug into the electricity grid, switch off their engines, and operate emission-free at port.

Urban link 

A new urban corridor will also be built along the waterfront below Montjuïc, for public transport, taxis, ride-hailing services, bicycles and pedestrians.

This €10 million project will link Plaça Drassanes square in the city center with the neighborhood of Marina del Prat Vermell and the Zona Franca.

€185 million investment

The combined projects represent a public-private investment of €185 million in the Port of Barcelona. This comes on top of the €265 million already invested under the previous agreement signed between the city council and the port in 2018 to reorganize cruise activity. 

Port officials say the agreement has been almost fully implemented, with cruise operations relocated from the Drassanes and Barcelona Nord docks to the Adossat dock, freeing up the waterfront for public use.

Putting limits on overtourism

Mayor Collboni thanked the Port of Barcelona for its "empathy and understanding," acknowledging that cruise activity had reached its limit.

"Economic growth must come from other directions," he said.

He emphasized this marks the first time "limits are being placed on tourism growth and cruise traffic in the city," citing the example of other European destinations like Amsterdam, Dubrovnik, Mallorca, and Valencia, which are also exploring similar measures.

Collboni noted that between 2018 and 2024, cruise passenger numbers in the Catalan capital rose by 20%.