Cruise ship debate set to rage again this year

Costa Cruises will make 100 stops, Aida Cruises, 94 and MSC Cruises 80, whereas Royal Caribbean International, Marella Cruises, Norwegian Cruises and TUI Cruises, will keep the same schedule as they had last year.

The largest number of arrivals will be in October when 89 cruise ships will dock in Palma and more ships will come to Majorca during the low season in March, April, November and December.

This year even more cruise ship passengers are expected to visit Palma. In 2019, 2,153,295 cruise passengers visited the city, 1,223,148 were in transit and 930,147 were base and they spent between one and three nights in hotels in the city before starting their Mediterranean cruise.

This forecast was recently analysed by the board of directors of the Authoritat Portuària de Balears, or APB and studies are currently underway to try to stagger the number of cruise passengers arriving in Palma, to avoid a negative impact on the city centre, although businesses say cruise tourism increases their turnover by 30%, particularly in the old town.

Ships

The largest ships docking in Palma will be Costa Smeralda at 337 metres long, MSC Fantasia at 333.3 metres long, Norwegian Epic at 325.45 metres and the Mein Schiff at 315.7 metres long. The smallest will be the Clipper Odissey at 103 metres, Le Bouganville at 131 metres and Star Legend at 135 metres.

The APB says smaller vessels usually bring high purchasing power, because they make excursions around the Island and have a direct impact on trade and restoration in the city.

According to the shipping schedule for 2020 there’s only one day when seven cruise ships will be in Palma port at the same time, on average there will be between two and three cruise ships docking per day.

The management of the CLIA shipping companies is negotiating with Palma port, to reorder for the arrival of cruise ships throughout the twelve months of the year with sustainability criteria.