Limiting cruise ships
The regional tourism minister is currently a very busy fellow. On Thursday we reported that Biel Barceló wanted to place a limit on the number of cruise ships in Palma on any given day. "We must regulate in order that there are no more than four ships." This was a response to the day in May when eight ships were in port. You didn't seem overly impressed by the suggestion. Among comments was: "Yet again the government seems intent on alienating tourists/cruise ship operators. Having spent so much money upgrading the port, why now consider this limit?"
The town hall didn't appear to give the idea its total support. The tourism councillor said that the town hall doesn't have any say in any event as to the number of ships, but she made the point - a valid enough one - that potential overcrowding in the city from cruise passengers was more an issue of the capacities of individual ships rather than the number of ships.
On Friday, and related to the whole debate over ships and overcrowding, we observed that there had been a protest in Barcelona directed at the volume of cruise ships and in particular at the giant "Harmony Of The Seas", which arrives in Palma for the first time this Monday.
Holiday rentals and all-inclusives
The other subjects that Barceló was contending with were all-inclusives and the regulation of holiday rentals. This regulation, a Friday report said, will not be in place until next year. Meanwhile, and as we noted on Friday, there are greater authorities than the Balearic government having their say on the subject. The European Commission, addressing the offer of accommodation via websites such as Airbnb, said that bans should be a "last resort". It is looking to apply common rules for rentals.
On all-inclusives, the ministry was "clamping down" on illegal offer. There was, it seemed, some misunderstanding about this. It isn't a crackdown on all-inclusive per se but is directed at the fact that hotels - many of them - have not registered this type of offer with the ministry, as they are supposed to. Those which haven't registered will be the targets for inspectors. It is well known in Majorca that some hotels engage in offering all-inclusive in a somewhat clandestine fashion.
Puerto Pollensa's beach
The saga of the sun loungers and other beach services in Puerto Pollensa had appeared to have come to an end. There was a start on installing loungers and parasols Friday week ago, but then came a twist to the story. On Wednesday we reported that the residents association, seemingly having won the concession once more, hadn't been given permission by the town hall. The mayor, though, appeared relaxed. "Given the public interest in the service, we are not going to intervene." Yesterday, the town hall delegate for the port, Andrés Nevado Rodríguez, spoke about the various controversies to have affected Puerto Pollensa. On one of these, the number of tables on terraces, he revealed that there was to be a grand meeting in August of interested parties that will seek consensus in arriving at a new bylaw to govern terraces.
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