Eight business organisations called on the Balearic government this morning to scrap the curb on cruise ships after an 18 percent fall in passengers. "Don't demonise cruise ship passengers, it is family tourism with a high spending power," they said in a statement.
The previous Balearic government introduced new legislation which limited the number of cruise ships which could visit the port of Palma to three.
However the business organisations which include bar and restaurant associations, shopkeepers and tour guides claim that the curb has hit their takings with the number of cruise ship passengers coming ashore in Palma falling by 18 percent compared to 2019, the start of the Covid pandemic.
Palma is already one of the top cruise ship ports in the Mediterranean attracting in excess of 2.5 million passengers per year, including some of the biggest cruise ships in the world.
The president of the Aviba travel agencies association, Pedro Fiol, argues that the regulation of Palma stopovers was made "without foundation". He questions the criteria used for setting the limit, insisting that the cruise lines are "the first to be interested in sustainability and the use of renewable energies".
In 2020, Palma was one of a number of ports that signed up to the Cruise 2030 Call for Action. Others include Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bergen, Cannes, Dubrovnik, Malaga, Marseille and Venice. This advocates the sustainable development of cruise tourism and the use of smaller cruise ships.
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Its costing a few people dearly but its making a lot more people happy at the drop in overcrowding plus the reduction in pollution. Striking the balance is always the hardest thing .
Just checked - spot the cruise ship advertising on MDB guys. Busted!!!
I’m starting to see a theme here. First the Jasón Moore article on Palma residents welcoming cruise ships (yep, maybe the deranged ones who love a bit of pollution and over crowding. I think not ). Then a few spurious businesses wanting wrist band cruise ship trade. Really?? The only people who benefit from that are the illegal street traders, with fake bags pinned to sheets. Do the math. Something not quite right here. But hey ho, picked up by short staffed Daily Express subs. Perhaps it was a slow day on PA? One question - are the cruise ship owners buying advertising on MDB sites? Or perhaps splashing out for editorial lunches and freebies?? Read your comments. MDB readers aren’t entirely uninformed, even if the Daily Express sub editor are :(
Having worked as shore excursion manager on several different cruise ships that visited Palma, I can testify that 99% of cruise passengers DO NOT spend money on shore, except for a drink or souvenir. Even on the luxury cruise ships, passengers return to the ship for meals. The majority take tours offered by the cruise line, so where is all the "big spending"? Does not exist. Cruise ships pollute and all those passengers just clog up Palma.
Please no! Cruise ship passengers do indeed have high spending power, but do they really spend much of it while visiting? I doubt it, all meals are typically taken on-board, they are here for just a few hours while they aimlessly follow a tour guide through the narrowest streets - maybe stopping for an ice cream, or the odd coffee but realistically not much more than that. Do we really want to ease the cruise ship restrictions we waited so long for, just for this very small gain at the cost of clogging up our streets with these shuffling groups of semi-comatose visitors??
Funny how as soon as it hits you in the pocket the argument surrounding the number of people visiting and overcrowding Palma is forgotten.
Simple solution here. Substantially increase port fee charges for the shipping lines and lobby to have the fees paid to local government not to Madrid. Then remove the ban and enjoy the fruits.