The 2030 Strategic Plan with a 2040 vision of the Port Authority of the Bay of Algeciras (APBA) incorporates cruise traffic as an objective in both ports it manages. The "strengthening of the cruise sector" is mentioned twice in the action plan of the document: in the section dedicated to bringing the ports closer to citizens and in the one that the Port Authority reserves exclusively for the Port of Tarifa. Among the milestones of the Port-City integration block, the APBA formulates it with an expression that orders the rest of the reading: "Start and development of cruise traffic in Algeciras and Tarifa."
The word "start" sets the starting point and describes a paradigm shift. The Bay of Algeciras is not alien to large cruise ships, but its relationship with them has been almost exclusively technical until now. The cruises entering the Bay do so to refuel, stock up, carry out repairs, or change crew, not to disembark passengers. The port itself has promoted itself for years in those terms: at the 2024 Seatrade Cruise Med fair, the APBA attended to position Algeciras as a technical port for cruises, with a delegation of companies from the port community —among them BE Química, Lemmas Shipping, Total Logistic Services, Tramarco, Incargo Andalucía Sur, Sandvik Marine Electronics, and the Free Trade Zone of Cádiz— that presented their repair, supply, and bunkering services for this type of vessel. Already in 2021, at an event titled "The Bay of Algeciras: sustainable environment for cruise ship services," the Port Authority expressed its aspiration to become a base port for technical stops and a strategic partner for shipping companies in the Western Mediterranean.
The photograph that the plan reproduces on its page 16 summarizes that starting point better than any figure. The image documents the entry into the Bay of the Icon of the Seas, from Royal Caribbean, and appears in the context and trends chapter for the horizon 2030-2040. The vessel —one of the largest cruise ships in the world and the first of its company capable of operating with liquefied natural gas— entered Algeciras in December 2023 to receive a supply of 2,500 cubic meters of LNG before starting the season in Caribbean waters. It was a technical stop: no passenger set foot on land in the Campo de Gibraltar. The image that the plan uses as a reference for the cruise segment illustrates, accurately, the model that the APBA wants to expand.
The document does not provide figures for current calls, cruise passengers, or quantitative objectives for 2030. Unlike the container blocks —nine million TEUs capacity by 2035—, the Strait traffic —one million trucks by 2035, 7.5 million passengers—, or the environmental section —70% direct emission reduction—, the cruise sector is the only major objective of the plan that is presented without associated metrics. The commitment that the APBA will respond to in 2030 is limited to the traffic having started and being in development in both ports.
The location of the objective within the document informs how the Port Authority understands it. The two sections that cover the cruise share the same approach: the relationship between the port and its urban and citizen environment. The first is formulated as "bringing the ports closer to citizens, generating shared value and collaborating with local agents," and groups the cruise together with improving public perception of the APBA's management, enabling port areas for public service, and increasing community participation in Port-City activities. The corresponding milestone appears in the Port-City integration block, along with the new fishing market of Algeciras, the Lake Maritime project, the 25 hectares of Port-City integrated into the municipalities, and the enhancement of the nautical-sports facilities of La Línea, Puente Mayorga, El Saladillo, and Tarifa. The cruise, in the architecture of the plan, is not just another commercial traffic: it is a tool for connection with the city.
The commercial work to make that leap has been underway for several years, although the plan does not detail it. The APBA attended Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami in April 2025, the largest international fair of the sector, and in September of the same year to Seatrade Hamburg, the meeting where shipping companies outline the destinations they will offer in the next two seasons. In both events, it participated under the umbrella of Suncruise Andalucía —the association that brings together all general interest ports of the State in Andalusia plus those of Ceuta and Melilla, presided over by the president of the APBA, Gerardo Landaluce— and within the institutional stand of Ports of the State. To the ports of Algeciras and Tarifa, the Port Authority added in Hamburg the facilities of La Línea, managed by Alcaidesa Marina.
The positioning chosen for those fairs is the luxury and premium segment, with stops outside the conventional Mediterranean circuits. The proposal presented to shipping companies combines the possibility of visiting two continents in one day, whale and migratory bird watching, wind sports on the beaches of Tarifa, scuba diving at the confluence of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, hiking in the Natural Park of the Strait and in Los Alcornocales, the castles of Guzmán el Bueno, Castellar, and Jimena, the Roman ruins of Baelo Claudia, the Paco de Lucía Route with an interpretation center in Algeciras, and a gastronomic offer centered on bluefin tuna and retinto beef. The APBA maintains the technical argument it already dominates in that catalog —supply of large volumes of low-sulfur fuels and LNG, repairs, and crew changes—, but now presents it as an added value of a tourist stop, not its reason for being.
Two heritage assets included in the plan fit into that proposal. The document includes the conservation and enhancement plan for port historical heritage, whose pillars are the Fort of Isla Verde, in Algeciras, and Isla de Tarifa, where the plan places an interpretation center and the lighthouse. It is joined by a situational factor with attraction potential: the total solar eclipse of August 2, 2027, whose totality path will cross the Strait of Gibraltar from west to east, and which the Port Authority promotes together with the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Campo de Gibraltar and the Provincial Council of Cádiz.
The scale of the challenge is measured by comparing with Andalusian ports that already operate tourist traffic. Málaga closed 2025 with 570,481 cruise passengers and 331 calls, a 21.3% and 19% increase over the previous year, with nearly 40% of the passengers on luxury vessels. The Port of Cádiz Bay anticipated 382 calls for 2026 and closed the first half of this year with 153 calls and 255,379 cruise passengers, a 13.33% and 21.55% increase over the same period of 2025. These are figures built over decades, with dedicated terminals, consolidated itineraries, and an urban offer oriented to the one-day visitor. The APBA's plan does not propose to compete with those volumes: the luxury and small vessel route requires less infrastructure and generates less pressure, but also fewer passengers.
Tarifa is where the objective poses the greatest constraints. The plan dedicates a specific section to the Tarifa port, which the APBA formulates as "promoting a development of the Port of Tarifa adapted to its environment, optimizing its operational capacity and seeking to strengthen its link with the city," and situates the strengthening of the cruise alongside maximizing operational capacity for passenger and vehicle traffic in passenger service, maximizing road access capacity, increasing the useful life of infrastructure, electrification of port activity, and the transition to alternative fuels. The very statement —"adapted to its environment"— acknowledges the limit: Tarifa is a small port, nestled in the urban area, with a ferry line to North Africa undergoing renewal and with a road access that the plan identifies as a bottleneck.
The timing of the segment also coincides with a European debate on the taxation and environmental impact of cruising. A study by Transport & Environment released this month estimates the external costs generated by cruise activity in Spain, France, and Italy during 2025 at between 790 million and 1.3 billion euros, and calculates that a levy of 15 euros per passenger and call would raise 335 million annually in these three countries. The APBA's plan does not address this discussion, but incorporates environmental tools that directly affect the cruise: the complete implementation of electrical supply to docked ships (OPS) in Algeciras and Tarifa, the 40 MW of additional electrical power, and the goal that 50% of ships that call adopt the environmental bonus system.
