World’s largest cruise ship to be based in Barcelona and offer 25 routes in 2015

Barcelona (ACN).- The ‘Allure of the Seas’, which is currently the largest cruise ship in the world, will operate from 2015 onwards from the Port of Barcelona. Next year, it will offer 25 different routes from or to the Catalan capital. For each trip, the ‘Allure of the Seas’, which belongs to Royal Caribbean, welcomes 6,318 passengers on board. Due to the considerable size of the boat - 361 meters long - passengers will access and exit the facilities through two terminals of Barcelona’s Harbour. Royal Caribbean stated that the 158,000 passengers expected to travel on all 25 routes will bring €17.5 million to Barcelona’s local economy each year. It will be the first time the ‘Allure of the Seas’, which currently operates in the Caribbean, will drop anchor in a European harbour.

The President of the Port of Barcelona, ​​Sixte Cambra, announced Royal Caribbean’s decision in a press conference held in mid-February in the Catalan capital. He said that choosing Barcelona for the ‘Allure of the Seas’ to drop anchor in 2015 was a “challenge” due to the cruise ship’s size and to the logistics involved.

158,000 passengers to travel on all 25 routes each year

The ship is capable of carrying 6,318 passengers per trip and is 361 meters long, a figure amounting to more than three soccer fields. Due to such dimensions, the ship will occupy two terminals at the Port of Barcelona (B and C) with approximately 3,000 passengers transiting through each of them.

The Director General of Royal Caribbean in Spain and France, Belén Wangüemert, also attended the press conference. She said that for all these 25 routes combined, the largest cruise ship in the world expected to carry a total of 158,000 passengers each year. She then added that Barcelona would gain €17.5 million from being a ‘turnaround’, departure city or final destination.

Passenger spending will have a positive economic impact on Barcelona

Belén Wangüemert said that this estimate had been based on the latest edition of the ‘Turisme de Barcelona’ study, which stated that cruise passengers spent an average of €113 while calling in at the Catalan capital. In addition to passenger spending, supplying the ship for each of the routes (in food, fuel, water, consumer products) as well as taxes will also have a positive economic impact on Barcelona.

A park with over 12,000 plants amongst many other activities

Wangüemert also explained that the ‘Allure of the Seas’ was a unique ship not only due to its size, but also to its high degree of innovation and extensive range of activities, which include a garden with over 12,000 plants, an amphitheatre, a two deck dance hall, and 21 swimming pools.

Record 2.6 million passengers in the Port of Barcelona in 2013

Sixte Cambra has announced that in 2014, the peak in the number of passengers is scheduled for the 18^th of May, with the arrival of 31,534 passengers in the Port of Barcelona while the busiest weekend is expected for the 12^th-13^th of September, with 57,700 passengers transiting through the harbour.

Last year the number of passengers on a cruise to or from Barcelona reached 2.6 million, which represented an 8% increase on 2012, and equalling the record which was registered in 2011.