PORT POLICY AND PORT CHOICE: THE SPANISH CASE

This study will highlight the factors that influence the choice of port in Spanish port system, which determine greater fidelity, the capture of traffic and the extent to which, in general terms, the installations that go to make up the Spanish ports are attractive to users. The study is made from the point of view of government port institutions: individual Port Authorities and State Ports Authority (Central Government). For accomplishing this purpose, the results of a survey performed over personnel of the Spanish port management institutions are analyzed, first using a descriptive approach, and later by Exploratory Factor Analysis. The conclusions confirm that there are important differences with respect to what should be the operational procedure of the central government's port coordination entity (State Ports Authority) and each individual Port Authority. Additionally there are significant differences in the way that Northern and South-eastern ports both function and are managed. In light of this features, it will be possible to indicate potential priorities for logistical and commercial policies, in order to make commercial ports more efficient. Until now, researchers have studied port choice factors based on requests and demands of external agents (maritime companies, freight forwarders, charterers and users in general), but not of the service providers (port authorities at their different levels). Port choice models are currently emerging as an alternative in order to cover this gap, and this paper uses this methodology in order to clear definitions for the port governance institutions' policy targets.