Tourism

Balearic ports set to lose cruise passengers next year

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma19/11/2018 15:07

The recovery of competitor tourist destinations in the Mediterranean will have an impact on the number of cruise ships coming to Balearic ports. The Spanish director of the Cruise Lines International Association, Alfredo Serrano, says that Turkey is the country that will provide the most competition to the Balearics in the short term.

To a lesser extent, Egypt and Tunisia are also recapturing some of the lost cruise market, with Palma estimated to have been captured around 120,000 passengers since 2015. For the eight months up to August, 571 cruise shops stopped in Palma. They brought 1,962,915 passengers.

It will not only be Balearic ports which are affected by a resurgence in these competitors' cruise tourism. At the Seatrade Cruise Med Europe fair in Lisbon in September, it was noted that Croatia, Greece, Italy and Portugal will all be affected by a rearrangement of itineraries.