Cruise ship arrivals are becoming huge business for Spanish ports and both Santa Cruz and Las Palmas on Gran Canaria are helping to lead the way.

The two ports were placed third and fourth in Europe for the most active markets during 2010, with a total of 1.3 million passengers, an increase of 13.7% with respect to 2009.
Last year, the Spanish ports notched up a record when they welcomed more than seven million cruise ship passengers.

The Canary Islands, Barcelona, the Balearics, Málaga, Valencia and Vigo were the main locations, with the arrivals representing 12.5% of the Spanish tourist sector (52.6 million international tourists visited Spain during 2010).

The ports in the archipelago are busy throughout the year but particularly so during the autumn and winter months. They are the third most active market in Europe, with a total of 1,358,767 passengers, an increase of 13.7% with respect to 2009 (1,19,536 passengers). Santa Cruz received 740,022 passengers last year, 54.46% of the total for the islands and 26.97% more than in 2009.

Only Barcelona with 2.3 million cruise passengers and the Balearics with 1.5 million surpass the numbers received at the port in Santa Cruz. Las Palmas had 618,745 arrivals, up 1.15% on 2009 and 45.53% of the 1.3 million passengers who berthed in the Canary Islands in 2010. This places it fourth in the traffic list. In 2009, Las Palmas (611,701 passengers) surpassed Santa Cruz de Tenerife (582,835 passengers).
In one decade, cruise passengers in the Spanish ports has tripled from two million to 7,132,505 people. The biggest rise was in 2010 when the figure went up 17.7% to 7.12 million.
Figures show that the average cruise ship passenger spends between 50 euros and 75 euros a day at stopping off points and between 200 and 300 euros if the liner uses the port as its base.