Economic impact of cruise activity: the port of Barcelona

Esther Vayá (), José Ramón García (), Joaquim Murillo (), Javier Romaní () and Jordi Suriñach
Additional contact information
Esther Vayá: AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona
José Ramón García: AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona
Joaquim Murillo: AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona
Javier Romaní: AQR-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona

No XREAP2016-07, Working Papers from Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP)

Abstract: Tourism is a highly dynamic sector. An example of this is the boom that cruise tourism has seen in recent years, leading many countries to consider cruises a key product in their development of tourism. The Port of Barcelona has become the leading cruise port in the Mediterranean area (2.4 million cruise passengers in 2014), highlighting its role as both a port of call and a homeport. Such leadership is explained by the conjunction of several factors: its strategic geographical position, its high quality port and transportation infrastructures, and the attractiveness of the city of Barcelona itself, for both its cultural and artistic heritage and its leisure and shopping opportunities. This article quantifies the local and regional economic impact generated by cruise activity in the Port of Barcelona. Using input-output methodology, its overall impact is computed for the year 2014 as the sum of three partial impacts: direct effect, indirect effect and induced effect. This article is pioneering at the European level, in combining different issues: estimating the impact of the Barcelona Cruise Port activity, presenting these impacts disaggregated at a sectoral level, using a rigorous methodology and carrying out extensive fieldwork. The estimated impacts demonstrate that all sectors, not just traditional tourism-related sectors, benefit from cruise tourism. Despite the significant economic benefits that cruise activity has generated over the whole Catalan economy, it is important to note that such activity also generates negative externalities associated with congestion and environmental issues. The reduction of these negative effects is one of the major challenges in making the development of cruise tourism sustainable in a city like Barcelona

Keywords: Cruise Tourism; Port of Barcelona; Economic Impact; Input-Output Methodology. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2016-12, Revised 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-tre and nep-tur
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://www.xreap.cat/RePEc/xrp/pdf/XREAP2016-07.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)
http://www.xreap.cat/RePEc/xrp/pdf/XREAP2016-07.pdf Revised version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Impact of Cruise Activity: The Port of Barcelona (2016)
Working Paper: Economic Impact of Cruise Activity: The Port of Barcelona (2016)
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