Cruise ships in Palma's port

Cruise ships in Palma's port | Gabriel Alomar

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma17/09/2019 04:01
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The platform against mega-cruise ships in Palma, which comprises various associations, has demanded a moratorium in respect of contracts for cruise ships as from 2022.

The spokesperson for the platform, Joan Forteza of the federation of residents associations, said on Monday that cruise tourism, especially that of the very large ships, is "totally unsustainable" and "undesirable" for the city. It would appear, however, that the moratorium demand applies to all cruise ships.

The 2022 date is because schedules for stopovers in Palma have already been agreed for 2020 and 2021. Forteza added that the city has therefore been "mortgaged" by contracts for these two years.

Forteza expressed his disappointment at the meetings in Hamburg last week between Balearics and cruise operator representatives. These gave an impression of a "first step" having been taken on cruise ship limits, but Forteza believes that the opposite was done.

A further demand is for the establishment of a technically qualified and independent commission for defining the environmental, social and economic burden of cruise tourism, especially in the old centre of Palma.

The moratorium's objective, Forteza said, would be the temporary suspension of new contracting of port services for disembarkation, embarkation and docking.