Cruise ships diverted to Palma for security reasons

Palma.—Islamic terrorism is continuing to complicate matters in the tourist industry and this week, the major tour operators and cruise lines announced that they are studying  withdrawing  ports of call in Turkey and Egypt from their routes and diverting their ships to Palma and Ibiza instead this summer.
The cruise lines want to maintain their Mediterranean routes but are staying away from Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia for security reasons.
TUI Cruise, Thomson Cruises, Pullmantur, Costa Cruceros, MSC and Aida are all monitoring the situation because all of their summer cruises have been planned and sold but should the situation in the three countries, or any others they visit, get worse, they will divert their liners to the Balearics in May or June.
Any such a move will significantly increase the number of vessels handled by the Balearic Port Authorities and could lead to more than six liners in the Port of Palma at any one time. The six ship cap was introduced over the winter to prevent situations similar to last year when as many as eight ships were in port at any one time, sparing the debate over tourism saturation in the capital.
At the moment, the port authority has 421 cruise liners booked in to Palma between 1 May and 31 October, nearly seven percent more than last year’s 394.
And, on 6 and 27 July and 6 August, the port is expecting to reach its ceiling of six ships at the same time.
However, that could change.