The 6th Port Citizen workshop, held on 24 and 25 October 2019 in collaboration with the Bilbao Port Authority (Spain), was attended by over 50 people from ten different countries. Some of the participants run existing Port Centers, while others are looking at the possibility of opening new Port Centers in their cities. The event was an opportunity for all to share their experiences and practices.

The Port of Bilbao is the largest port on the Atlantic coast of Spain and one of the principal ports of the country, with a cargo flow of almost 36 million tons in 2018. At the same time, the metropolitan area of the city of Bilbao has a population of over one million inhabitants. In recent decades, the urban waterfront has undergone major modifications, known all over the world for its most symbolic construction, the Guggenheim Museum. However, city-planning is much more complex than the famous cultural installation; plans have had to be developed for the Abandoibarra zone, and more recently for Zorrotzaurre. The port has played a fundamental role in this transformation process, releasing land and relocating some of its operations along the waterfront. The new configuration of the port implies new challenges, like maintaining contact with the citizens now that they do not have as direct a connection with port activities as they used to. 

The event took place on Monday 30 September and Tuesday 1 October. It was the last stage of a cruise benchmarking process carried out by AIVP at the request of stakeholders in Le Havre.
The aim of the exercise was to support efforts to create conditions for sustainable development of the vibrant cruise activity in Le Havre by the period 2020-2025, and to make the area around the cruise ship docks a real asset contributing to the attractiveness of the City Port of Le Havre.