Crowding and carrying capacity

Concentration is built into the offer

Analysing the excursions published on cruise line websites, about 85 in 100 include a stop in the port city itself in Barcelona and Valencia, and only one in five takes passengers outside the city.^[1] In Barcelona Ciutat Vella appears in 58% of city excursions and the Sagrada Família alone in 52%; in Valencia the historic centre is included in 62%.^[1] Outside Barcelona only Montserrat exceeds 12% of excursions.^[1]

Available time narrows the choice further: according to reports cited by the authors, cruise passengers stay ashore on average 4 h 20 min in Barcelona and 4 h 30 min in Valencia.^[1] The Lisbon and Livorno study likewise points out that the issue is the simultaneous landing of 2,000–4,000 people moving in confined areas for a few hours, more than the overall share of cruise visitors in tourist flows.^[6]

Measuring a street's capacity

In Valencia an automatic counting camera in a pedestrian street beside the cathedral turns carrying capacity into operational thresholds: on about 58 m² of usable space, 36 people at once is rated very acceptable, 74 acceptable and 216 critical.^[2] On the typical day the camera counts 38,436 pedestrians, during the Fallas 54,696 and on the main religious festival day 147,058; across the three days, threshold breaches coincide with local calendar events.^[2] The study does not distinguish residents, tourists and cruise passengers.^[2]

The INPReS model defines visitor pressure as the number of people per unit of time or space relative to the place's designated capacity: the same number weighs more when concentrated.^[3]

What visitors perceive

In an online survey of 582 visitors to ten Mediterranean destinations, the more crowded the destination is judged, the lower satisfaction and the intention to return and recommend it; the strongest negative link with satisfaction, however, is the impression that the place has been adapted to tourists.^[5] Only 8.2% of respondents had arrived on a cruise.^[5] Among independent cruise passengers tracked in Barcelona, the feeling that some places were too crowded differs significantly between walking profiles (average scores from 3.1 to 3.6 out of 5), while satisfaction stays high across all of them.^[7]

A ladder of interventions

INPReS ranks five types of intervention by increasing intensity: neutral information, nudges and recommendations, pricing, reservation and, as a last resort, closing access.^[3] According to the model, information alone works only when pressure is low and visitors are willing to change plans; the authors state the framework has not been tested empirically.^[3]

From an analysis of five European port cities, three types of policy emerge: limiting disembarkations, as Dubrovnik does with at most two ships a day, managing the destination, and promoting alternative resources.^[4] The same authors admit that dispersal policies have limited effect, because the most famous places keep drawing crowds.^[4] The Barcelona and Valencia study proposes, among other things, capped or booking-only access at the busiest spots and apps signalling crowding in real time.^[1]