Barcelona has become the most important port in the world for cruise holiday tourism, apart from its original market, the Caribbean. This year, it has served as the base for some of the most modern mega-ships, like Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Sea, or the new flagship of the world’s premier cruise ship operator, the Carnival Horizon. In this context, two studies by the Applied Economics & Management Research Group, based at the University of Seville, have analysed the main trends in this important tourist sector. The authors of these projects were the José Ignacio Manzano, Lourdes López-Valpuesta and Mercedes Castro-Nuño.