The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has presented a long list of proposals that will go to the Sustainability Committee with the intention of easing tourism saturation. The most important is to "regulate, limit or prohibit the arrival of certain cruise ships, and permit only small and medium-sized ones. We also propose limiting the number of cruise ships or allowing only those that have Palma as their home port," said the mayor, who is also in favour of regulating or limiting the entry of rental cars into the city.
Martínez also announced that he wants to create "two taxes for cruise passengers: one for the arrival in port and another for access to the city". In addition, he has called for "the revision of rubbish charges in all ports and to limit the number of tourist groups, as well as guided tours to avoid the intrusion of tourist guides, establishing a limit" on the number of participants.
Martínez also proposed "limiting or banning 'party boats'; revising rubbish and water charges for holiday stays; and increasing surveillance of illegal holiday lets in order to eradicate illegal holiday tourism in Palma. The mayor also announced that Palma will prohibit new tourist rental places in all its forms.
Other measures include a request to the Government Delegation for more police, either from the National Police or the Guardia Civil and a ban on alcohol consumption in the street, except in certain places. One possibility suggested by Martínez is the creation of park-and-ride car parks and improving public transport, collaborating with all the administrations, including the Government Delegation, on Operation Cloud days when there is a massive influx of people into the centre of Palma due to bad weather, and creating a waste tax for take-away establishments, ice cream parlours and patisseries.
The measures that Martínez has proposed "will have to be debated" and that he hopes there will be consensus "with the other political parties, social and neighbourhood organisations and experts. In order to make decisions we need data". These proposals will be presented in the plenary session this Thursday and, even if they do not have the consensus of the other parties, "they will be carried out".
Martínez explained that "Palma has a population of 450,000 registered inhabitants, but we have a lot of visitors. We only have 50,000 tourist places but that is not the problem. Palma is the gateway for millions of tourists and we have a large floating population of second homes. A study needs to be carried out to find out the numbers".
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Oh here we go again! Charge yet another tax! But pray tell how does this make the beaches and streets less crowded?!?! Just more money in the back pockets of the powers that shouldn't be! This whole thing is just a wind-up! Let's cut to the chase - NOTHING WILL CHANGE!
Lots of noise, ideas and dreams. Now they have to turn those into action. Palma is the shining jewel in the crown of Mallorca but all jewels need polishing to keep their shine. Will this Council polish or procrastinate?
Well, not bad ideas. Cruise ships - pollution, no value. Party boats - a nuisance, dangerous, little major value (think drunk tourists … naaaaa) Rental cars - yes limit. Roads are choked for all. Some comen sense - good plan :)
Nothing will change, it never does. Gwt in power, make some noise, do nothing just like the previous lot and pocket some good money for 4 years. The park and ride scheme is a case in point as the taxi mafia will just cry foul again.
You couldn't make this up. The PP spent 8 years criticizing the previous government for limiting the number cruise ships, the tourist tax, and even talking about a limit on the amount of hotels and tourists etc. And now they come out with this, basically admitting that the last lot had it right all along. So they don't have any ideas of their own. They just wanted the power, not to actually change anything. As for 'the creation of park-and-ride car parks' - really? Palma must be the last place in Europe that doesn't have them. How is the cleaning of 'every area of Palma' going by the way? I've seen zero changes, in fact it's worse than ever!