Almost a quarter of a million Spaniards expected to ride the waves

More than 200,000 Spanish travelers will choose cruise liners to spend their vacations in 2004, a tourist choice that chips in revenues for 90 million euros, reckons Antonio Wanguemert, president of cruise tour operator Latitud 4. Earnings worldwide reach more than 12 billion euros, according to Hosteltur, a specialized publication.

For Mr. Wanguemert, those figures stack up well against the numbers scored back in the 1990s when only 60,000 Spaniards spent their vacations aboard recreational vessels. The development cruises have undergone in Spain has turned Barcelona into the number-one port of call in Europe and the world’s second best.

Some 700,000 cruise passengers passed through the harbor of the Catalonian city to get on liners, around 15 percent more than in 2001. In Mr. Wanguemert’s opinion, the force driving this sector in Spain stems, among other reasons, from the fact that a seven-day cruise ride including air transportation and travel fares was 25 percent pricier in 1983 than in 2001.