1.8 million cruise passengers have disembarked in the Balearic Islands until August.
The arrival of these tourists has increased by 5.5% compared to 2024, despite the agreement to limit these boats to Palma.
Palm1,779,692 cruise ship passengers passed through the ports of the Balearic Islands between January and August of this year, a figure that represents a 5.5% increase compared to 2024, according to data from Puertos del Estado released this Tuesday by the EFE news agency. In August alone, 96 cruise ships passed through the islands with 366,000 passengers, 7.2% less than last year. However, in the first two quarters of the year, the number of calls at the ports of the Balearic Islands increased by 8.5% compared to 2024. Passengers on regular maritime transport services totaled 5,331,294 between January and August, 2.4% less than a year ago. In August, the ports of the islands registered 1,268,359 passengers.
Regarding freight, the ports of Palma, Alcudia, Mahon, and Formentera have accumulated traffic of 12 million tons from January to August, 3.1% more than in the same months last year, despite the 1.8% decrease in August with 1.5 million tons.
In fact, just a week ago the Civil Society Forum demanded that tourist figures also include those of cruise passengers, because at the moment the INE and Ibestat only count people who stay overnight on the Islands and leave out those who only come for a day, as is the case with tourists. If 13.2 million tourists arrived in Mallorca in 2024, a total of 1.2 million visitors should be added to this figure, of which 800,000 were cruise passengers.
The Government says it wants to maintain the cruise ship restrictions in Palma.
For its part, the Government announced this Tuesday that, "at least," it intends to maintain the current agreement with the shipping companies to limit the arrival of cruise ships to the port of Palma, an agreement, however, that has not been an obstacle to the Balearic Islands exceeding the passenger figures for 2024. The Vice President and Minister asked Lluís Apesteguia (MÁS por Mallorca) about the Government's tourism policy, according to the Europa Press agency.
As the Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzá, had previously done, Costa emphasized that the results of the AETIB survey, with 80% of citizens believing there are too many tourists, "go in the direction" promoted by the Executive. "This Government is committed to setting limits and transforming the economic model of the Balearic Islands," he said.