Afedeco, Pimeco and the Balearic Trade Confederation describe the decrease of 310,000 passengers between January and November 2023 as "disastrous". This represented a 15% decrease compared with the same period of 2019.
On Monday, the employers groups insisted that President Prohens must "urgently amend" the agreement between the former government and cruise operators. "Businesses cannot wait until 2025. We are aware that stopovers are being lost for 2024 and that cruise companies are opting for other ports."
They stress that the agreement is not a legal one but is based on goodwill, thus allowing modification if both parties agree, while also emphasising that cruise operators attract quality, family tourism with high tourist spending, backed by a commitment to environmental technologies and sustainability.
The employers added that studies confirm that the air quality in Palma is good and that the old town of Palma is larger than that of Barcelona, with Palma being the second largest in Europe.
"While Barcelona receives more than three million cruise passengers a year, Palma does not even reach two million, despite having a population of barely 400,000 inhabitants compared to Barcelona's 1.6 million."
In their Monday announcement, they highlighted the capacity that exists in Palma's old town. "FAN Shopping attracts ten million customers, Porto Pi 7.8 million, while the old town of Palma is 20 times larger than both shopping centres combined. Therefore, it is evident that Palma has the capacity to receive a greater number of cruises than it currently receives or at least equal to those it had in 2019."
It is essential that Palma, at the least, returns to having the same number of cruise passengers as 2019. "We call on the cruise companies to continue supporting Palma and Mallorca."
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Matthew RileyGood point, and to call it fresh is somewhat wide of the mark.
The Cruise ship Debacle is actually as with many thing´s in Mallorca complicated there has been actually quite recently a lot of Money invested by the Spanish Madrid Gov into the Infrastructure needed for these Huge beasts so they want to get the investment back from that the entire club de mar renovation is designed to work with the cruise ship business the basic design and geometry of the Dock´s and there location is the basic problem as the smoke from the generators blows right over the club and then the town and this is very nasty !
On what planet do these people live. Palma/Mallorca does not need more tourists. It is totally saturated for about 5 months of the year.
I believe it was here in the MDB where I read that the average cruise ship uses some 660,000 gallons of fresh water daily. Do we have that to sell?
If you look at the bigger picture then shown a good time these tourist will return to our beautiful island. Work on a percentage that return and its quids in .
We all need some more fumes in our lungs....not.
More cruise ships??? Wave goodbye to quality tourism!!
What a load of self interested fat cat tosh. These cruise tourists eat on the boat and at best buy an ice cream and a baseball cap with Mallorca written on it. No value added whatsoever, in fact the busier Palma is with these people (usually fat) the more people like me willl stop going into Palma and spending real money.
John GaughanWhy was that the first thing I thought. Groups were quick enough to moan about all the ships. Now they're moaning about the lack of ships.
Not long ago Majorca did not want the cruise ships, you did not want as many tourists visiting your island. What do you want !