Spanish seaports specialisation: a choice analysis

Although the nautical activity in Spain shows some positive conditions, it lacks a strategic and clear positioning because of the fact that there is no nautical culture and the integration of the product in the country is in an incipient phase. Until now, the economic literature, although developed in analysing efficiency, productivity and seaport competition benchmarking, has taken no care either with the strategic aspect or with the positioning of the seaports with respect to their main activity. The aim of this paper is to offer first evidence regarding the analysis of the determinants of the strategic seaport specialisation as chosen by its users. The paper uses data from a survey to 400 potential users of a Catalan seaport, estimates a multinomial logit model and offers a new benchmarking in order to obtain first evidence regarding the analysis of the determinants of the strategic seaport specialisation.