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Cruise tourism: the role of shore excursions in the overcrowding of cities

Article  in  International Journal of Tourism Cities · June 2019

DOI: 10.1108/IJTC-04-2018-0029

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 CRUISE TOURISM: THE ROLE OF SHORE EXCURSIONS IN THE OVERCROWDING OF CITIES
Citation: Sandra Navarro-Ruiz, Ana B. Casado-Díaz & Josep Ivars-Baidal (2019) "Cruise tourism: the role of shore
excursions in the overcrowding of cities", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-
print, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-04-2018-0029

Purpose

The theoretical aim is to provide a deeper understanding of the relevance of shore excursions in the
distribution of cruise passenger flows; an approach which has been overlooked by many studies on
cruise tourism. Specifically, the paper focuses on two destinations: Barcelona, a mature cruise
destination suffering from the impact of overcrowding; and Valencia, an emerging cruise destination
facing the risk of future (similar) impacts.

Design/methodology/approach

The method used is multiple-case study with replication logic. First, web content analysis is conducted of
shore excursion descriptions of the destinations selected so as to identify the itineraries, as well as the
municipalities and the specific tourist attractions included in the tours. Then, word-processing tools are
used to create a regional and local data set to arrange the narrative data. Finally, density maps are
drawn in order to examine the different visitor flows within the tourist hinterlands from the supply
perspective.

Findings

The results indicate that most shore excursions are concentrated in the port cities. Comparing the two
destinations, the paper argues that the redistribution within the cities is not equally balanced.
Nevertheless, the results also reveal that the excursions offered by local shore tourism operators in both
destinations have contributed to the expansion of the cruise tourist hinterland over a wider regional
area.

Research limitations/implications

This paper evaluates the visitor flow distribution from a supply perspective. Hence, future studies should
examine the demand dimension in order to gain a deeper understanding of the concentration intensity.
Additionally, it would be worth examining not only visitors taking guided tours but also the independent
ones (those who visit the destination on their own).

Originality/value

Despite the growing importance of cruise tourism, research on the role of local shore tourism operators
in this sector is quite limited. One element that deserves more research attention is related to the role
of shore excursions in the spatial configuration of the cruise tourist hinterland. Finally, the results
obtained could also have significant implications for policymakers developing and promoting effective
measures to prevent overcrowding.

Key words: cruise tourism, overcrowding, shore excursions, urban cruise visitors, visitor flow
management

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1. Introduction
Cruise tourism is considered the greatest exponent of mass tourism and a tourism sector that has been
growing rapidly in recent years (Lopes and Dredge, 2017). Although it emerged as a niche elite market at
the beginning of the 20th century, after the end of the First World War, it evolved rapidly into mass
tourism due to the development of commercial aviation. Since then, the main objective of the cruise
industry has been to become a mass product (Rodrigue and Notteboom, 2013).

The UNWTO (2008) defines the cruise not as a mere mode of transport, but as a floating resort with
accommodation and leisure activities -offered both onboard and onshore-. The main difference, and at
the same time advantage over the conventional resort, is its mobility, which allows the cruise industry a
greater flexibility than the traditional business model (UNWTO, 2008; Rodrigue and Notteboom, 2013).

Nonetheless, this competitive advantage for shipping companies is also a source of conflicts for certain
destinations where such cruises dock (Brida and Zapata-Aguirre, 2010). Although some evidence is
found of positive perceived social impacts associated with cruise tourism (Gibson and Bentley, 2007),
many authors highlight that the congestion and tourism overcrowding experienced by these spaces are
becoming the main concerns of inhabitants and local actors (e.g. Hritz and Cecil, 2008; Gui and Russo,
2011; Del Chiappa and Abbate, 2016; Del Chiappa et al., 2018). Press headlines such as "Crowds and
cruise ships have 'ruined' Dubrovnik" (Foster, 2017) or "First Venice and Barcelona: now anti-tourism
marches spread across Europe" (Coldwell, 2017), confirm the existence of a real problem in certain
European destinations, at least in recent years.

In this context, local shore tourism operators are particularly relevant because they are responsible of
shore excursions; optional tours offered for sale on board and purchased by cruise visitors. In most
cases, these excursions are focused on the well-known local attractions, contributing to the congestion
and overcrowding of port cities. However, local tour operators have begun to offer new shore
excursions, distributing visitors to secondary sites. With this strategy, they expand the tourist hinterland
(the geographical area available to be visited), a phenomenon known as "cruise regionalization" (Gui
and Russo, 2011). Among other reasons (e.g. profit, market needs), local tour operators are trying to
avoid the most crowded attractions but, at the same time, they are finding a way to provide new
opportunities to expand the local visiting area to a regional level, helping to decongest the city centers
and promote less known tourist attractions (Gui and Russo, 2011).

Despite the important role of local shore tourism operators in the configuration of the cruise tourist
hinterland based on the shore excursions they offer, research in this field is quite limited (Ferrante et al.,
2016; Samarathunga, 2016; Lopes and Dredge, 2017). Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold. First,
the study attempts to bridge the gap between the distribution of cruise visitor flows and the overall
shore excursions offered. Second, it illustrates the spatial regionalization of cruise tourism in the tourist
hinterland derived from the afore-mentioned flows. The main contribution of this study is to shed light
on the impact of cruise tourism on the overcrowding of cities by examining two different ports in the
Western Mediterranean region: Barcelona, the leading cruise port in the Mediterranean, and Valencia,
an emerging cruise destination.

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2. Cruise tourism and the congestion of tourist sites: a theoretical perspective
Cruise travel is a multi-destination trip model (Tussyadiah et al., 2006) which is more complex than the
mere experience in the vessel since the sum of the stops along the itinerary plays an essential role
(UNWTO, 2008). The vessel itself could be considered as the main destination and the ports the
gateways for entering the tourist hinterlands (Brida and Zapata-Aguirre, 2010; Rodrigue and
Notteboom, 2013).

Focusing on understanding the ports as gateways, Lekakou et al. (2009) delimit three geographical areas
associated with the spatial boundaries and the degree of port attraction: the port area, the port city and
the tourist hinterland which covers all the spatial area that can be visited.

Nonetheless, the tourist hinterland of every port is different and dynamic. Previous studies confirm that
the limited time is the most influential element regarding cruise passenger behavior within a
destination, acting as a restrictive factor for visiting the tourist hinterland (Jaakson, 2004; Brida et al.,
2013; De Cantis et al., 2016; Larsen and Wolff, 2016). Moreover, other factors that influence cruise
passenger behavior are: (i) the development of the land transport network, (ii) the distribution of tourist
attractions, (iii) the development of new attractions close to the port, and (iv) the interests of the
visitors (De Cantis et al., 2016).

Along these lines, several categories of ports have been proposed depending on the distribution of
cruise visitors across the tourist hinterland: from black hole ports, where the port city is endowed with
iconic or primary attractions and, therefore, passengers do not have any interest in moving beyond this
area; to gateway ports, where the only function of the port is to link between the ship and the tourist
hinterland, since there are no attractions in the port city (Gui and Russo, 2011; Rodrigue and
Notteboom, 2013).

Black hole ports are the ones which experience more intense congestion and overcrowding because
their tourist hinterland is reduced to the port city area (Figure 1). In fact, as shown in Gunn’s 1972 model
(Gunn, 2002), the concentration is confined to the tourist sites or points of interest as not all the port
city area is attractive to tourists.

Figure 1. Cruise visitors’ flows distribution within the tourist hinterland

Source: Adapted from Esteve-Pérez (2014)

3
Consequently, the inhabitants from these black hole ports might develop negative attitudes towards the
cruise tourism phenomenon as a result of the filth, the risk of damage to monuments and historic
heritage and the overcrowding of public spaces (Brida, Pulina, Riaño, & Zapata-Aguirre, 2012; Gui &
Russo, 2011; Klein, 2011; Pinnock, 2014; Pino & Peluso, 2015; Stefanidaki & Lekakou, 2014).

2.1 Overcrowding within black hole ports: the urban cruise visitors
The theoretical basis of crowding can be found in behavioral and environmental psychology (Neuts and
Nijkamp, 2012). Stokols (1972) defines the concept as a stressful situation produced over time due to
the spatial constraints on human activities; which, in cruise tourism might be translated as the stressful
situation of the local inhabitants arising as a result of their daily activities being affected by the time and
geographic constraints of cruise visitors (Marušid et al., 2008; Klein, 2011; Weeden et al., 2011; Pinnock,
2014; Pino and Peluso, 2015; Postma and Schmücker, 2017).

For top cruise destinations and emerging ones, the concentration of cruise visitors in certain tourist sites
represents one of the main concerns. These visitors have a limited period of time to visit the destination
which generates an increased demand for a series of services (i.e. queues for transports, attraction sites
and stores) and problems such as traffic jams, pollution and the erosion of historic heritage (McCarthy,
2003, 2017; Stefanidaki and Lekakou, 2014). This situation directly affects the inhabitants’ lifestyle and
should be carefully balanced (Klein, 2011; Pinnock, 2014; Pino and Peluso, 2015).

In the academic field, several authors have analyzed the residents’ attitudes toward the development of
cruise tourism (e.g. Marušid et al., 2008; Peručid and Puh, 2012; Brida et al., 2014; Del Chiappa et al.,
2018). Postma and Schmücker (2017) summarize previous research on the issue and highlight the
existence of feelings of annoyance among the residents stemming from a combination of the cultural
distance between inhabitants and visitors and from the spatial and temporal distribution condensed in
specific sites.

The media have also echoed the locals’ irritation arising from congestion in certain port cities caused by
cruise tourism, as is the case of Venice, Barcelona or Dubrovnik (Elperiodico.com, 2016; Foster, 2017;
Sorci, 2017). It is not surprising that these top cruise destinations are the most striking cases. Due to the
exceptional and primary attractions they possess (mostly) in their historic centers, visitors do not want
to move beyond these areas. Therefore, the emerging/medium cruise destinations (above all, the
European urban ones), which are following the steps of the top cruise destinations, have begun to see
this trend as a warning signal (Van Der Borg et al., 1996; Riganti and Nijkamp, 2008; Neuts and Nijkamp,
2012; Popp, 2012).

García-Hernández et al. (2017, pp. 2-3) explain that “cities are the most important component of
cultural tourism in Europe. Visitor influx tends to be concentrated in urban centers, which overlap
unevenly with historic centers [...] Whatever the purpose of their journey may be, tourists and day
trippers make intensive use of historic centers, engaging in a series of cultural activities during
their visits that overlap with the occupations of both local residents and residents from the rest of
the urban sprawl”.

4
The cornerstone for comprehending the extent to which the destination may be congested, lies in
knowing how cruise passengers behave in each destination, as they certainly become urban cruise
visitors, causing an intense physical pressure on a few points of interest, such as historic resources
(García-Hernández et al., 2017). Ashworth and Page (2011) highlight that general urban visitors are (i)
selective, as they use only a very small portion of the whole city, (ii) rapid, as they consume urban
tourism products quickly, (iii) firsters, as they are less likely to return repeatedly to the same city and (iv)
capricious, as they are more vulnerable to shifts in fashion and in consumer trends. The literature
suggests that this behavior is more intense among day trippers, because, as the case of urban cruise
visitors, their limited time in a destination intensifies these characteristics (Neuts and Nijkamp, 2012;
Riganti and Nijkamp, 2008; Van Der Borg et al., 1996).

Hence, when the cruise traffic begins to increase in a black hole port and, consequently, the volume of
passengers, effective strategies are necessary so as not to overcrowd the spaces (Scherrer et al., 2011;
Esteve-Pérez and García-Sánchez, 2016), a problem that has triggered unsustainability in other mass
tourism models (Brida and Zapata-Aguirre, 2010).

2.2 Local Shore Tourism Operators in Cruise Tourism: the shore excursions
The stakeholders involved in the management of cruise tourism belong to both private and public sector
groups (London and Lohmann, 2014; Papathanassis, 2017). They must coordinate their strategies, plans
and actions to ensure that passengers have a satisfactory experience, to mitigate the possible negative
impacts on the destination and to obtain the expected benefits for them all (Pallis, 2015). According to
London (2010) and London and Lohmann (2014), these actors can be grouped into three categories: (i)
the cruise line stakeholders, (ii) the port side stakeholders, and (iii) the shore side stakeholders, those
directly linked to port destinations (e.g., tourism policymakers, shore tourism operators, business
companies, residents).

Shore side stakeholders are involved in the provision of destination tourism services. Within this
category of stakeholders, two groups are especially important in terms of management: local tourist
policymakers, who are responsible for promoting the city to convert it into a home port (departure port)
or a call port (in transit port); and local shore tourism operators, who are responsible for both the
turnarounds (boarding and disembarkation services) and shore excursions (Gui and Russo, 2011; Lopes
and Dredge, 2017).

Shore excursions are optional tours designed by local shore tourism operators (hereafter, shore TOs),
offered for sale on board and purchased by cruise visitors (Samarathunga, 2016). In most cases, the
excursions are not included in the overall cruise package and their purpose is to make the cruise product
even more appealing. They are usually focused on the well-known local attractions and secondary
sightseeing sites, giving the urban cruise visitor a chance to ‘experience’ the destination in a short period
of time (Samarathunga, 2016). Thus, shore TOs design a broader tourist ‘bubble’ in the hinterland where
activities are scheduled and even monitored (Weaver, 2005). This gives passengers a sense of security
because they know that, despite travelling a long distance from the ship to the tourist sites, they will
always arrive in time before the cruise departs (Jaakson, 2004; Parola et al., 2014).Previous literature
has focused on the economic impact of shore excursions as an important part of the cruise tourism

5
model. These excursions represent one of the most important sources of income for the shipping
companies and play an essential role in the global itinerary attractiveness (Johnson, 2006; Papathanassis
and Beckmann, 2011; Lee and Lee, 2017; Lopes and Dredge, 2017). In fact, some authors point out that
cruise line operators use these activities to recover part of the profit lost by the discounts offered in
cabins (Torbianelli, 2012). However, there is a lack of research on the design of shore excursions and the
value they generate (Klein, 2011; Ferrante et al., 2016).

When examining the effect of shore excursion in the cruise industry, the conceptualization of value goes
beyond the economic aspect to include also social, cultural, environmental and/or political impacts. This
approach is adopted in a recent work by Lopes and Dredge (2017), who discuss the characteristics of
cruise tourism, itinerary and shore excursion planning in Copenhagen. Also, Samarathunga (2016)
examines the challenges faced by shore excursion providers in Sri Lanka, highlighting the economic,
natural and socio-cultural challenges, demand-supply challenges and service providers challenges. It is
evident that further research is needed in order to develop a consistent framework for shore excursion
value in the cruise industry.

Summing up, cruise tourism is mostly based on mass tourism models, with black hole ports being those
which mostly experience the predictable overcrowding by floods of urban cruise visitors (Samarathunga,
2016). This massive influx generates an increased demand for certain services, as well as positive and
negative impacts. The latter are those that are propagating cases of “tourism-phobia”, that is, aversion
towards cruise tourists. As a consequence, effective strategies are necessary in order to alleviate the
spaces.

Although one of the most accepted theoretical solutions is based on diversifying the shore excursions
offered by shore TOs, research in this field is quite limited (Ferrante et al., 2016; Samarathunga, 2016;
Lopes and Dredge, 2017). To fill this gap, a multiple-case study is used for analyzing the distribution of
cruise visitor flows in relation to the total shore excursions offered. Additionally, a series of strategies to
deal with this problem are proposed.

3. Methodology
The method used is multiple-case study with replication logic (Yin, 2014). Two different ports in the
Western Mediterranean region have been selected: Barcelona, the leading cruise port in the
Mediterranean region (Garay-Tamajón et al., 2014; MedCruise, 2018; Ros Chaos et al., 2018), and
Valencia, an emerging cruise destination (Sanz-Blas and Buzova, 2016; Navarro-Ruiz, 2017; MedCruise,
2018).

The data sources refer to the most relevant shipping companies whose cruises dock in the destinations
of the case study. The data have been collected through an analysis of the cruise line web content
relating to the shore excursion descriptions (Herring, 2010). As shown in Table I, nine cruise line
websites have been analyzed in the Barcelona case (showing a total of 98 shore excursions), while in the
case of Valencia, ten cruise line websites have been examined (a total of 86 shore excursions). The
cruise lines examined for this research represent approximately 75% of calls in 2017 season.

6
 Table I here

Each shipping company offers its own excursions (Heroys and Burgess, 2015; Klein, 2006; Parola et al.,
2014) depending on their status and the visitors needs and expectations (London, 2011). The process of
including a tour within a call usually lasts between 6 and 12 months (Heroys and Burgess, 2015). It
begins with a request from the shipping company to the shore TO for scheduling a tour. The shore TO
must describe in detail the itinerary, which attractions are going to be visited and the schedule, as well
as other relevant information such as, the maximum capacity and the level of difficulty (Pérez-Ramón,
2012). If the shipping company finally considers such programming suitable for its customers, the tour
will be included in its excursions catalog. In the Western Mediterranean region, the most important local
shore TOs are Intercruises ShoreSide & Port Services, BC Tours and Calypso Excursions, whose shore
excursions are analyzed in this paper.

The case study protocol (Yin, 2014) follows four steps. Through web content analysis, itineraries, as well
as the municipalities and the specific tourist attractions included in the tours are identified.
Subsequently, to arrange the narrative data, word-processing tools are used to create a regional and
local data set which classifies the information into contingency tables to acquire relative frequencies.
Finally, these data are treated to draw density maps in order to examine the possible different visitor
flows within the tourist hinterlands from the supply perspective. Additionally, public reports and
planning instruments related to the issue are examined, specifically those concerning urban planning,
transport and tourism, to adequately contextualize the effects of shore excursions on the congestion of
public spaces.

3.1 Case selection

In 2017, the Spanish Mediterranean region received 67% of the Spanish total arrivals (Ministerio de
Fomento, 2018). Barcelona leads this ranking with more than 2.700.000 cruise visitors (Ministerio de
Fomento, 2018), becoming the principal European port (and the fourth in the world) in terms of the
movement of cruise passengers (Suriñach et al., 2018). Furthermore, a recent report from the AQR-Lab
(Suriñach et al., 2018) pointed out that the leadership of the Port of Barcelona evolved during the period
2000-2011, from a total of 572.571 passenger movements in 2000 to 2.657.244 in 2011. This
exponential growth is due to the takeoff of Barcelona as one of the most important international urban
tourist destinations after the 1992 Olympics Games and the joint intervention of the public-private
sector to boost tourism in the city (Garay-Tamajón et al., 2014). With respect to the economic impacts
revealed in that AQR-Lab report (Suriñach et al., 2018), the cruise tourism activity of the Port of
Barcelona recorded a turnover of 1,082.9 million euros in Catalonia in 2016 (with Barcelona accounting
for 73% of the total) broken down into direct expenses, indirect and induced expenses, national and
regional taxes, as well as the tourist tax (1.6 million euros). Regarding the cruise passenger direct
expenses in Barcelona in 2016, transit passengers spent an average of €57.30 per day while the
overnight visitors spent an average of €230 per day. However, despite the positive economic impacts,
social movements against this type of tourism have recently begun (Milano, 2017). In the 2017
municipal opinion survey, tourism was identified as the first concern for citizens, a clear indicator of the
rise of ‘civic resistance’ against mass tourism in Barcelona. Obviously, cruise passengers contribute to

7
the congestion of the main tourist sites in Barcelona, and therefore, the city council has considered this
issue in the strategic plans of the city (Arias, 2017; Arias, Valdés and Villalante, 2017). Consequently,
Barcelona has been selected as a research case to illustrate a mature cruise destination with significant
congestion impacts.

On the other hand, Valencia is the sixth port of Spain and the fourth port of Spain’s Mediterranean
region in terms of cruise visitors arrivals, more than 410.000 in 2017 (Ministerio de Fomento, 2018). The
evolution of cruise tourism in Valencia has been more gradual than in the case of Barcelona. In 1999,
Valencia recorded the first data in cruise traffic, with a total of 3,169 passengers (Sanz-Blas and Buzova,
2015), which peaked in 2012 with 480,233 cruise visitors (Ministerio de Fomento, 2018). This evolution
is due to the considerable transformation that Valencia has experienced as a tourist destination over the
last 15 years, showing one of the highest growth rates in Europe (Rausell-Köster et al., 2016) and
reaching more than 2 million tourists in 2017 (E.D., 2018). This evolution is the result of several public
policies, such the construction of different man-made attractions, the organization of some well-known
international sporting events and a long-term promotional strategy, which has positioned Valencia as an
important urban tourist destination (Puche-Ruiz and Obiol-Menero, 2011; Rausell-Köster et al., 2016;
Salom-Carrasco and Pitarch-Garrido, 2017). Nevertheless, cruise tourism does not seem to be perceived
as an overcrowding factor in this city. Strategic Tourism Plans in Valencia (Fundación Turismo Valencia,
2011, 2017) propose cruise tourism as an interesting emerging product with good expectations of future
development and consider marketing actions to attract this kind of tourism. Moreover, the port of
Valencia, under the auspices of the Valenciaport Foundation, has been included in several Interreg Med
EU projects, such as SIROCCO (to conclude in 2018), CO-EVOLVE (to conclude in 2020) and HERIT-DATA
(to conclude in 2022). All of this demonstrates its growing importance as an emerging cruise destination.
Available data regarding the economic impact of cruise tourism in Valencia (AVT and GFK, 2015), reveal
that guided cruise passengers spent an average of €40 per day, while independent cruise visitors spent
an average of €48. However, recent urban plans focused on the historic center (Ajuntament de València,
2018), point out that tourism could be potentially harmful, mainly due to the growing congestion of
public spaces and, although not directly related to cruise tourism, the proliferation of peer to peer
accommodation. Thus, Valencia has been chosen as an emerging urban cruise destination.

4. Findings
The results of the analysis of shore excursions in Barcelona and Valencia confirm them as black hole
ports, since approximately 85% of the tours include a visit the port cities in their schedules (Figure 2 and
Figure 4). This means that the whole visit is in the city area or combines other municipalities and
attractions of the black hole ports.

4.1 Barcelona cruise regional hinterland

In the case of cruise hinterland regionalization in Barcelona (Figure 2), the results illustrate that the
second tourist node that has a presence of over 12% in the excursions offered is the Monastery of Santa
María de Montserrat, a Benedictine religious site located 61.5km from the city of Barcelona.

8
Figure 2. Map of Barcelona cruise hinterland regionalization by shore excursions

In contrast, the rest of the tourism nodes have a low presence in the shore excursions of Barcelona
(between 1% and 4%). Four municipalities account for 3%, offering activities such as: water sports, a visit
to a wine or cava cellar or a visit to the Colonia Güell, declared Heritage of Cultural Interest for its
modernist remains.

Regarding the locations that have a 2% representation, two municipalities are found where golf
activities and beach and shopping are offered. Finally, the analysis has detected a 1% presence of two
locations that are more than 100 km away from the port city: Girona and Figueres (an excursion offered
by just one of the shipping companies analyzed).

4.2 City of Barcelona cruise hinterland

Tourist attractions in the city of Barcelona are offered in 84 shore excursions by the different shipping
companies that dock in its port. The distribution of the flows (Figure 3) can be divided into three
districts: Ciutat Vella, with a 58% presence in the city tour offers, the Ensanche, with a 55% presence,
and Montjüic and its surroundings (45%). These findings are directly related to the territorial impact of
direct spending by cruise passengers in Barcelona revealed in the AQR-Lab report. The report concludes
that the estimated direct spending impact extends to all districts of the city, thus benefiting the entire
municipality, especially the districts of Ciutat Vella (26%) and Ensanche (28.5%).

9
Figure 3. Map of the city of Barcelona cruise hinterland by shore excursions

With respect to the Ciutat Vella district, in addition to walking excursions, the results show that 32% of
tours offer a panoramic view in this district. The most frequently offered activity in this tourist area is
walking through the Gothic Neighborhood, with a presence of 36%, while the attractions that obtain a
medium-high presence are the Ramblas (27%), Plaza Cataluña (25%) and the visit to the Cathedral
(21%). Additionally, the Boqueria Market (18%) and gastronomic tastings (15%) have been categorized
as having a medium presence, while the attractions with low representation are a walk through the Born
Neighborhood (7%), and visits to the Church of Santa María del Mar (4%) and Santa Caterina Market
(4%).

In relation to the Ensanche district, the results also show the existence of a panoramic view of this
tourist area with a 35% presence in the excursions offered. Regarding visits on foot, the area with the
highest presence among the Barcelona shore excursions is the Sagrada Familia (52% of the 84 port city
shore excursions). Furthermore, the results also illustrate other attractions with a medium presence
such as Casa Batlló (14%), Casa Milà (11%) or a walk along Passeig de Gràcia (11%). The Montjüic district
is categorized as having a high representativeness in the shore excursions, obtaining a presence of 38%,
while visits to the Spanish Village (12%), photostop in the Mirador Gardens (12%) and the visit to the
Olympic Stadium (11%) are classified with a medium presence.

There are other attractions in the port city area that are included in the shore excursions and have a low
representation, such as the visit to the Camp Nou stadium (8%), a panoramic view of the Triumph Arch
and the Ciutadella Park (7%), a panoramic view of the Olympic Port (6%), a visit to the Palau de la
Música (5%) or to the Güell Park (4%) or, enjoying a flamenco show (4%).

10
4.3 Valencia cruise regional hinterland
In the case of the Valencia cruise hinterland regionalization (Figure 4), the port city also obtained more
than 85% representativeness in the tours offered by the shipping companies. However, the cruise
municipalities from the hinterland regionalization obtain relatively higher presence rates than in the
case of Barcelona. The two tourist nodes outside the port city that have the greatest presence in the
tours are the Vall d'Uixó (8,5%) where passengers visit a natural grotto that is accessed by boat through
the longest navigable underground river in Europe, and Tavernes Blanques (7%), where the Lladró
Boutique is located.

In addition, the Valencian hinterland is also represented by another three tourist nodes that have a
presence of 5% in the total shore excursions: the Albufera Natural Park, a visit to a wine cellar (including
tasting) in the town of Requena, and a walk through the historical center of Sagunto. Finally, the analysis
illustrates a low presence of the excursion to the town of Venta del Moro (3%), where passengers can do
adventure sports and also of the visit to Xàtiva castle and its historical center, for which only one tour
was found.

Figure 4. Map of Valencia cruise hinterland regionalization by shore excursions

4.4 City of Valencia cruise hinterland

Tourist attractions in the city of Valencia are offered in 74 shore excursions by the different shipping
companies that dock in its port. The distribution of the flows (Figure 5) is divided mainly into two areas:
the Historic Center, with a 62% presence in the shore excursions offer, and the City of Arts and Sciences
(hereafter CAC) and its surroundings (31%). These results are similar to those in the AVT and GFK (2015)
report, that is, most cruise visitors stay in the city center while a small proportion visits the CAC.

11
The Historic Center of Valencia is the space that clusters the tourist attractions with the highest
presence in the tours offered by the shipping companies. It should be noted that, as in the case of
Barcelona, the analysis has shown that the panoramic view of the city center is the most representative
resource, being present in 73% of the shore excursions. With respect to the historical-cultural
attractions with a high presence in the shore excursions, the Virgin Square and the Serranos’ Gate head
the ranking with a 57% presence, followed by the Cathedral (55%), the Silk Exchange building (50%) and
the Central Market (49%). Two resources have obtained medium-high representativeness: a visit to the
Plaza Redonda (36%) and the activity of tasting typical products, such as horchata (tiger nut milk) (23%).
The attractions that show medium-low rates (5%) are the visit to the palace of the Marques de Dos
Aguas and a walk through the town hall square. Finally, those which obtained low representativeness
(2%) are the visit to the Basilica, the visit to the College of High Silk Art, and the visit to the Church of San
Nicolás, the latter two attractions were restored a year ago and already present in the excursions.

Figure 5. Map of the city of Valencia cruise hinterland by shore excursions

With respect to the CAC and its surroundings, there is also a panoramic view with a 14% presence and a
photo-stop (24%) included in the excursions of the port city. As for the walking visits within this area, the
tour admiring the buildings has a 22% presence, while the Oceanographic, one of the largest aquariums
in Europe, has a representativeness of 18%. Finally, the results show that the Fallas Museum has a
medium-low presence, with 9%, and the Sciences Museum has a low representation, with only one
excursion offered by a shipping company.

12
Likewise, the results have confirmed the presence of other attractions that are growing in popularity but
still with a low representativeness, namely a walk or bike ride along the Turia River, with 8%, a
panoramic view of the Marina Real (5%) and the Bioparc visit (4%).

5. Discussion and conclusions

The aim of this paper is to explore the role that shore excursions have in the spatial distribution of cruise
passengers and in the configuration of the cruise tourist hinterland to better understand its impact on
the overcrowding of the areas visited. The study focuses on two different destinations; Barcelona, a top
cruise destination with significant congestion impacts, and Valencia, an emerging urban cruise
destination.

The results confirm, first, that both destinations can be categorized as black hole ports; those that are
more prone to suffering from the subsequent congestion and overcrowding of the port city area.
Second, the results also show that shore TOs extends the cruise hinterland for both destinations.
Although these excursions away from the city center could alleviate the overcrowding problem, they
represent just 20% of the total. Due to the large concentration of well-known attractions in port cities,
passengers prefer to stay inside that area, which means that more than 80% of shore excursions are
offered within these boundaries. Hence, as the literature suggests, cruise passengers become urban
cruise visitors because they use more intensely the attractions and services located in the historic
centers. These results are not surprising given that both cities are international urban destinations with
primary attractions. However, for both destinations, the findings show that only a part of the port city
area can be considered as a tourist area. The reason is that tourists have a territorial selective behavior
and concentrate in certain tourist sites, specifically, in historical and cultural attractions.

In the case of Barcelona, the results reveal that the iconic attractions of the city have higher ratios of
presence in the shore excursions. These findings support the general cruise passenger behavior
identified by the Suriñach et al. (2018) report, given that they usually concentrate in Las Ramblas, the
Barrio Gótico, the Sagrada Familia and the city’s waterfront, where the most popular activities are
wandering around, shopping, cultural visits and enjoying local gastronomy. Notwithstanding, this report
does not mention the percentage of cruise passengers who take guided tours and independent tourists
(those who visit the destination on their own), therefore, it cannot be confirmed whether these ratios
apply to the two groups. A more in-depth classification is required as each group behaves differently;
while guided tourists have a schedule and a planned route, independent ones manage their time and
planning. Hence, what is more important? Enhancing the management of guided tours or offering tools
to the independent tourists in an attempt to redistribute their flows? Both actions are necessary, but
the priority will depend on the amount of cruise visitors in each group.

The case of Valencia is a little more striking. The creation of the CAC was one of the biggest lures to
position the city in the tourism market (Puche-Ruiz and Obiol-Menero, 2011; Salom-Carrasco and
Pitarch-Garrido, 2017). However, the distribution of cruise visitors across the shore excursions
demonstrates that the historic center has a higher prominence in the tours than this new attraction. The

13
results reveal that the Historic Center of Valencia has a greater presence (more than 50%) in the tours
offered than the case of Barcelona and Ciutat Vella. This fact is highly significant because, if the port call
arrival trend in this medium cruise destination continues to grow, adding to the concentration of supply
levels in the urban center of the city, it would lead to stressful situations caused by the saturation of the
points of interest. Thus, and based on the excursions supply, Valencia, as an emerging cruise
destination, is replicating the mature destination model. In the future, and with an increase in
stopovers, Valencia could develop the same congestion problems as Barcelona.

5.1 Practical implications

The study carried out on the role of cruise tourism in the saturation of tourist areas in Barcelona and
Valencia brings many nuances to this growing urban problem. Cruise traffic has been identified as a
cause of overtourism due to the peculiarities of this tourism product, basically the massive
disembarkation of people and group visits to the main points of interest of the cities. However, cruise
passengers form part of the problem that integrates other types of tourists, such as day visitors for
various reasons and residents, but the scarce knowledge of the impact of cruises on a local scale favors a
negative perception, amplified, probably, by the media in cities such as Barcelona (Elperiodico.com,
2016)

Barcelona's commitment to gaining a better knowledge of cruise tourism (identifying its economic
impact on the different neighborhoods of the city and its contribution to urban employment) favors a
better diagnosis of the situation and the adoption of measures that require better coordination among
the main stakeholders (shipping companies and managers of the city and the port). In the case of
Valencia, tourism pressure is lower than that suffered by Barcelona but when the first signs of conflicts
of use between residents and tourists begin to appear, they should be managed properly. Among the
initiatives for more sustainable management, the role of excursions for de-concentrating tourist flows,
which is analyzed in this paper, is commonly highlighted. Obviously, this strategy would reduce the
congestion of certain urban spaces, but its development faces a series of obstacles related to the
characteristics of the destinations and demand, and the coordination deficit in the local management of
cruise tourism. In any case, the distribution of cruise visitors and the extension of the tourist hinterland
in each destination should be considered as being unique and dynamic (Larsen and Wolff, 2016).

An important feature of cruise destinations refers to the difficulties of expanding the hinterland in black
hole cities, which are subject to a kind of path dependence and where it is very difficult to divert the
traditional flow of visitors away from the primary attractions, which constitute true hotspots in terms of
their great capacity for attraction, the generation of congestion, and the complexity of their
management. This is the case of Barcelona, which has a very high factor of concentration (visitor-
resident ratio) in the Old City (Russo and Scarnato, 2018) because of the proximity of the port to the
urban center where the important tourist attractions are concentrated. Faced with this growing problem
in cities such as Barcelona, Venice and Amsterdam, radical measures of visitor control can be expected
in the face of growing social discontent and its influence on local politics. From the point of view of the
demand, the short average stay of the cruise passengers, 4 hours and 20 minutes in Barcelona and 4
hours and 30 minutes in Valencia (AVT and GFK, 2015; Suriñach et al., 2018), limits their visiting
possibilities, a condition that is combined with conventional motivations linked to the must-visit

14
attractions. However, on a motivational level, excursions demonstrate the possibility of diversifying
visits and activities in the city, an opportunity that can only be exploited if there is efficient coordination
between all of the stakeholders involved in cruise tourism.

The situations of overcrowding do not benefit the city, the demand or the operators of the cruise
market, so it is essential to intensify the collaboration to find solutions on a local scale, which seem
more easily attainable than in other tourism practices as the schedule of cruise arrivals, the call duration
and the amount and profile of cruise visitors is known well in advance. To contribute to solving this
problem, Table II shows some propositions of how this conflict situation in cities with an
overwhelming amount of urban cruise visitors can be managed.

Table II. Managing actions for preventing/reducing overcrowding of urban spaces caused by cruise
visitors

 Enabling of different bus stops (for tours and shuttles) in the destinations
 Development of a Strategic Cruise Tourism Plan (state, private and citizen
stakeholders should be involved), linking the marketing perspective with the
Strategy & management of cruise visitor impacts and a regional focus able to cover the
dynamic hinterland of cruise tourism
Coordination  Creation of a specific unit where all the stakeholders related to cruise tourism
are involved for coordination
 Design of public transport systems taking into account the impact of cruise
visitors
 Focusing on attracting shipping companies in the off-season
 Creation of attractive regional routes, accessible by public transport, in
accordance with the profile of the cruise passengers
Diversification
 Creation of pedestrian routes within the port city that redistribute flows to
& spatial secondary attractions and increase the average stay in the destination
diffusion  Rediscovering the local assets, incorporating new tourist resources off the
beaten track carefully designed depending on to their urban and social
character
 Protection of the most congested areas: limiting the capacity, establishing
Visitor visiting hours, even through by reservation only or by reservation or increasing
1 the entrance price
management
 Creation of agreements and co-operation mechanisms involving different
stakeholders
Smart  Creation of a tourist tracking system to develop location-based marketing
actions to prevent overcrowding
Technologies  App design for visitors in real time providing information on transport,
attractions, weather, the degree of public affluence, reservations, etc.
(linking physical
 Creation of a monitoring system for cruise tourism useful for management and
and virtual for communicating the real impact of this type of tourism to the society,
2
world) avoiding prejudices
1
The Central Market of Valencia has created an agreement whereby the guides describe the points of interest outside the market.
2
Blab (a program of Barcelona Mobile World Capital) develops an interesting project using the Internet of Things (WIFI, GSM and 3D sensors)
together with Big Data techniques for the management of the Sagrada Familia. https://d-lab.tech/es/proyecto-1/

15
5.2 Limitations and future research

This study focuses on the shore excursions offered on the shipping companies’ websites. The lack of
secondary data regarding the number of people who hire each excursion is a limitation of the study.
Therefore, future research is needed to examine the demand dimension in order to gain a deeper
understanding of the concentration intensity; analyzing the flows of both guided and independent
visitors. Furthermore, and along the same lines, another interesting topic would be to analyze the
behavior of urban cruise visitors to compare them with the traits of general urban visitors highlighted by
Ashworth and Page (2011). As indicated by De Cantis et al. (2016), a knowledge of cruise passenger
behavior within their destinations is essential to manage the influx of visitors to iconic and primary
attractions, redistribute flows towards secondary and tertiary sites, develop proper tourist services,
carefully organize the transport network and, above all, prevent overcrowding and congestion in specific
areas in favor of positive experiences. On the other hand, in relation to the supply dimension, extensive
research into the relationship between the stakeholders involved and the impacts of cruise tourism
impacts on a destination is required to provide a complete framework about the challenges of this
tourism product.

In summary, de-concentrating tourism flows continues to be a management challenge, which is

becoming even more urgent, if possible, given the new processes that are accelerating the turistification
of cities. In the case of cruise tourism, and considering the two cities analyzed, the redistributing role of
excursions is still limited and requires a greater coordination effort among stakeholders to solve
problems of different scopes for consolidated destinations such as Barcelona and emerging ones, such
as Valencia. The increasing intensity of tourist flows in urban areas requires a deeper analysis of the
different types of tourist mobility and their interaction with the movements of residents and the use of
public spaces. This analysis perspective inevitably includes organized excursions due to their impact and
due to the possibility of redefining them so as to generate more sustainable patterns of tourism
behavior.

Acknowledgement
Research carried out within the project “Analysis of planning processes applied to smart cities and smart tourism
destinations. Balance and methodological proposal for tourist spaces: Smart Tourism Planning” (CSO2017-82592-R)
under the Spanish National R&D&I Plan funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness
(UAFPU2016-014).

16
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