December 25th, 2021 at 11:06 am CET
Myriam B. Moneo
The government and the main shipping companies in the world operating in the Balearic Islands have this week in Hamburg (Germany) a historic cooperation agreement to effectively regulate the arrival of cruise ships in the Balearic Islands. In this way, the islands will become the first national destination to make such a commitment, which will take effect in 2022 when the port of Palma calls at 14.5% fewer calls than in 2019.
Only three cruises can arrive per day, and only one of them can be a mega cruise, with the exception of at least 20 exceptional days in 2022, when the limit will be raised to four Boats according to the already set scale. In The weekly calculation never exceeds 8,500 cruise passengers per day.
The agreement was concluded after two years of negotiations and constant contacts between both parties and after a meeting of the government, the Minister of Economic Model, Tourism and Labor, Iago Negueruela, and the General Director for Tourism, Rosana Morillo, while the shipping companies are primarily responsible for CLIA, Costa Cruises, MSC Cruises, TUI Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Marella Cruises.
Members of the Balearic Government and shipping companies meet in Hamburg | CAIB
Negueruela considers it a “very good agreement” in which the government has worked “for a long time” and thank you CLIA for the cooperation. “Without a legal framework or legal capacity” it is not possible to determine “what you want, but what you can”, the Balearic spokesman makes clear whether this decline in cruise arrivals does not meet the expectations of its government partners. For the socialists, this is a first step with shipping companies and they will continue to work with them to further regulate activity.
Both parties have highlighted the importance of this cooperation agreement to set a sustainable limit on arrivals in the port of Palma, as it will come into force from 2022, the government said in a statement.
The agreement provides for that next year Only a total of three cruise ships will arrive in Palma on the same day, and only one of them will be allowed to have a capacity of more than 5,000 passengers.
Cruises in navigation | Agencies
In other words, in 2022 only one mega-cruise and two other smaller ships will converge in Palma on the same day, which already means an effective reduction in calls that are also carried over to the number of visitors.
In this way they will reach the port of Palma next year 460 boats with a capacity for more than 500 passengers, compared to 538 who did so in 2019, 14.5% less.
And when it is counted el total container, including those with a capacity of less than 500 passengers, the planned stopovers in the Balearic capital for next year will be 518, compared to 594 in 2019, which is also a very similar reduction, in this case of 13%.
