“We should not underestimate that there is a direct impact of riots or some of the demonstrations, but especially those that are violent,” she stressed during her speech at a briefing, warning of the damage to both tourists and the local destination where the protest takes place.
In addition, the general director of CLIA Spain, Alfredo Serrano, stressed the importance of investing in infrastructure and tourism promotion to increase the attractiveness of destinations. “The companies are already making efforts by scheduling cruises in places in Spain such as La Coruña, Alicante, Almería, Cádiz, Bilbao, Cartagena, Ceuta, Balearics and Ferrol,” he added.
For her part, the senior vice-president of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Virginia Messina, has focused on the ever-increasing global tourism offer, with the number of destinations tripling in the last decade, suggesting that new emerging powers such as Saudi Arabia and Oman are emerging, with “investments in the millions”.
“There is much more choice for tourists and where they are not welcome there are many other places where they can travel,” she warned. For Messina, the current dissatisfaction of residents stems in large part from “a lack of a governance structure at the local level”. For this reason, she has asked politicians to “sit down at the table to talk a little and understand where the pressure points are” of the sector.
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Is nobody reading the room? Less cruseros, better for Palma and everyone on the island who would like to visit Palma without these locust ships.
A typical cruise ship day in port: Gorge yourself at breakfast, making sure everyone has plenty to eat. Takes lots of food and sandwiches ashore along with complimentary bottles of water. Leave the ship to go around the sights, taking lots of photos so everyone thinks you have actually visited that place. Eat your prepacked sandwiches and drink your water indiscriminately discarding your packaging. Buy cheap Chinese tat off the illegal sellers or legitimate tat shops. Walk unannounced into cafes and bars to use their bathroom facilities and depleting their precious water resources. Then return to the ship in time to have a nap before dressing for 7pm dinner. In the meantime, the cruise ship has discharged its 10,000 gallons of chorine pools and refilled with fresh water. Cruise ships, don't need them.