Cruiser ships in Majorca

“Let’s face it...we need cruise ships more than cruise ships need us....” | R.L.

Jason MoorePalma20/10/2021 10:15

If you look around Palma at the moment you can tell that times are hard on the high street. The pandemic coupled with the growth in internet shopping and the lack of tourists have taken their toll on Palma shops. There is one ray of sunshine, though, cruise ships have started to return. Not in the numbers seen in previous years but gradually there are more ships in the port.

It will be a lifeline for the island´s shops. But, already there are protests about too many cruise ships visiting the Port of Palma. I thought that this rather senseless campaign would have been scrapped as a result of the pandemic. But no, almost as the first cruise ship sailed into Palma, the protests started.

All modern cruise ships are environmentally friendly, more so than other large vessels which visit the Port of Palma. Yes, there is a problem of overcrowding when four or more vessels coincide in the port but this is more the fault of the city council for not equipping Palma to cope with a sudden influx of people.

I think you can safely say that the Palma business community needs cruise ships more than cruise ships need them. We live on an island which survives thanks to tourism and this was made very clear during the pandemic.

Rather than protesting we should be welcoming them. Local shops are disappearing at an alarming rate because of a lack of trade. The only way to reverse this state of affairs is through tourism. We need cruise ships, it is as simple as that.