Barcelona's harbour, top cruise site of the Mediterranean

Barcelona (ACN).- Between January and September 2010, 1,818,908 passengers went through Barcelona’s harbour, mostly coming from cruises. In the same period of 2009, the number was 1,613,949 people. The figure represents a 12.7% increase, which consolidates Barcelona's harbour as the first cruise and passenger harbour of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. Regarding freight, its traffic has increased by 5.66%, with 20,501,712 kilos registered in the first 9 months of the year. Container traffic has increased in Barcelona by 5.23%.

Tarragona’s harbour, the second of port of Catalonia, has seen its figures increase spectacularly. Passenger traffic rose 63%, while freight rose by 26%. Container traffic increases represented 21.93%

According to these provisional results for 2010, these figures confirm the recovery of exportations and tourism sectors. These figures also consolidate the 2 main Catalan harbours as unavoidable milestones in the passenger and container traffic in Europe and the Mediterranean sea. In the whole of Spain, an average increase of 3% was recorded regarding freight traffic.