Key Aspects:
- Global Ports Services, a ground operations firm, reviewed its key operational successes from 2025.
- The company handled turnaround services for TUI Cruises’ Mein Schiff Relax.
- It also opened a new headquarters office in Malaga, Spain.
Global Ports Holding is a familiar name to cruise industry insiders, since the firm enjoys long-term management contracts with 30-plus ports around the world. However, some might not realize the full scope of operations provided by its Global Ports Services (GPS) division.
GPS handles, for instance, ground services that include everything from passenger and luggage security to the loading of cruise ship provisions, setting up gangways, coordinating harbor pilots — even managing mail for crew members, among other tasks.
As 2025 winds down, the service company is looking back on the milestones it reached and the strides it made as operations continue to expand across the world. Among them is the opening of a new headquarters office in Malaga, Spain, as business in the region grows.
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“2025 has been a year of meaningful progress: expanding our reach, deepening client relationships, and delivering services that meet the rising standards of the cruise industry,” said Jordi Guillem, director of GPH Port Services.
“We are committed to building on this momentum and continuing to provide integrated port services that bring efficiency, quality, and added value to every port call,” Guillem added.
In Barcelona, the Mediterranean’s busiest cruise port that Global Ports Holding (GPH) has managed since 2014, the services company handled five embarkations and debarkations for TUI Cruises’ newest ship, Mein Schiff Relax.
The 4,100-guest ship entered service in February 2025 as the first in the cruise line’s InTUItion class. Mein Schiff Relax is among the industry’s most technologically advanced; she is powered by liquefied natural gas, is equipped for shore-power connection, and has a thermal waste treatment system.
Port of Barcelona Attracts Cruise Ships Year-round
Barcelona is a sought-after port of call as well as an embarkation port. The destination is included on many transatlantic crossings and world voyages.
In winter 2026, several cruise ships are operating roundtrip from Barcelona, such as MSC World Europa and MSC Orchestra, while others, including Viking’s Viking Vesta, are sailing between Barcelona and Athens and Rome.
Along with its new office in Malaga, GPS notes that it managed operations for Virgin Voyages’ Brilliant Lady, including crew movements and onboard logistics after she left her shipyard.
The 2,770-guest ship was built at a Fincantieri yard in Italy, entered service in September 2025, and began sailing from PortMiami a month later.
In another first, GPS handled its initial cruise ship embarkation and debarkation at Lisbon Cruise Port.
Global Ports Holding manages key ports in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. They include facilities in Nassau, St. Lucia, and San Juan in the Caribbean.
In Europe, the company has contracts to operate the ports in Valencia and Tarragona, Spain; Messina, Sicily; Valletta, Malta; and Kusadasi, Turkey, among others.
In 2024, it completed a major construction project at the Tarragona Cruise Port, about an hour south of Barcelona. The new $6 million cruise terminal now accommodates up to four cruise ships.
