Last week, Palma handled 13 cruise ships of various sizes and now between Friday October 27 and November 2, a total of 21 cruise ships will be docking in the Port of Palma.
One of the reasons could be the unrest in the Eastern Mediterranean due to the war in Israel.
Today, for example, MSC Cruises announced that is has cancelled all sailings scheduled to call at destinations in the Red Sea until April 17, 2024 due to the ongoing conflict in Israel.
The line has cancelled the full winter programmes of both MSC Orchestra (pictured) and MSC Sinfonia and made “minor changes” to the itineraries on the Grand Voyages of MSC Virtuosa, MSC Opera and MSC Splendida.
And other cruise lines are due to follow suit and could mean they are looking for alternative ports.
Some sectors will welcome the news.
This month eight business organisations called on the Balearic government 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 at any one time.
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.
7 comments
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Lisa JuliaSo two morons actually want extra pollution and crowding in Palma (going by the likes). That will be Humph (author) and a cruise ship owning billionaire?? Certainly not anyone living in Palma, or wanting to visit it. That would be like turkeys voting for Xmas! Yep, morons.
Interesting fact - Barcelona has now banned cruise ships (yes, these disgusting super polluters) from their main port. They’ve been relegated to a small non-central cargo area. So Venice, Amsterdam and now Barcelona banning cruise ships in their central ports. Putting local people and quality tourism first. Palma’s new government - they’ll be taking the cruise ship environmental disaster … it won’t end well. Not for Palma that is … environmentally or economically :(
So some crap souvenir shops sell a few postcards and fridge magnets whilst the population of Palma is literally poisoned by these things. And we're supposed to be in favour of this!
Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyCharles, your observation is interesting. Were the people in Palma that you describe wearing T-shirts identifying themselves as "Cruise Passengers"? This week is half term in the UK and a number of other European countries. But of course, the tourists that you saw filling Palma's streets weren't half term holidaymakers. They were of course cruise passengers, identifiable by their distinctive C&A and Zara bags. Charles, I don't think there is a career opportunity for you in market research...
Palma has been jammed enough with tourists for the past 8 months, we really don't need any extra. So keep the restrictions in place please. People keep saying that cruise tourists have high spending power, this may be true, but really how much dies the average cruise passenger spend when visiting Palma??? ......my guess is very, very little - a coffee, an ice cream is all most will spend - a few might forego the included "all you can eat buffet" on board and instead buy a cheap lunch in town.....but I'd say that's about all we get from most cruise passengers.
Palma central was seriously packed today (Tuesday) with cruise passengers. Servers at Bar Bosch were overwhelmed and there wasn't a free table for most of the day. Some were lunching so not all hurry back to their ship for their meal. I looked for evidence of shopping but few passengers were carrying meaningful bags back to their ships. Those that were, predictably Zara and C&A represented the majority (of bags). The real winners are the fake goods sellers who position themselves along the route passengers take to get to the centre. They were all doing brisk business but it's unlikely that cash sees its way back into the island's economy!
Good for Palma , Good for Business , especially this time of year none of these People on these ships venture outside of the very center of Palma and they do contribute to the well being of the small business’s there and bars and restaurants there the pollution caused by the generators running is another issue which should be discussed and dealt with Palma needs these people and should be smart and actually improve relations and infrastructure to help create more business opertunity’s in this sector !