Topic: Boom! Barcelona receives a record 2.6m passengers in 2011

Official stats issued by Barcelona officials have set a new record for cruise business in 2011. Approximately 2.6m cruise passengers descended on the Mediterranean port. It received 881 cruise ship calls in total.

According to Seatrade Insider, of the 2,657,244 cruise passengers 1.1m were in transit representing a 6.7% gain while the other 1.5 million were turnarounds, an 18% rise.

Meanwhile in the Balearics, 534 ships visited the island's three main cruise ports bringing 1.6m passengers.

Palma saw a 6% increase in passenger numbers with 1.4m on 534 calls, a 2% gain. At Ibiza, cruise calls went up by 22% to 123 ships but passengers were down 2% to 129,369 suggesting either smaller vessels or lower occupancy, which seems the less likely case.

At Mahon, Menorca, 79 ships brought 54,957 passengers, down 13% and 15%, respectively compared to 2010.

Have you been to the ports mentioned above? If not, do you have plans to visit this year?

I would love to see the stats for the Caribbean! We were there in January and virtually every port had at least three ships in port

I can well understand this. In August when we disembarked our cruise last year in Barcelona there were seven cruise liners in the port along with a couple of ferrys.