Majorca makes major change to cruise ship rules – ‘30k fewer tourists’
The number of cruise passengers allowed off their ships and into Palma de Mallorca has been slashed under the renewal of a major agreement on the popular Balearic Island. Under the renewal of the memorandum of understanding signed by the regional government, Palma Town Hall and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), only three cruise ships will be permitted each day, while the number of passengers will be reduced from the current 8,500 maximum per day to 7,500.
The measures – effective from 2027 to 2029 – will reduce the estimated monthly total by a staggering 30,000. "There are stopover requests that will need to be modified," CLIA's director Alfredo Serrano warned. "The companies will have to adapt, but it's not yet possible to measure the final effect." Cruise ships have become a major source of contention in Majorca over the last few years and have been cited as a major contributor to the worsening tourist overcrowding.
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Addressing the problem, Mr Serrano said: "It is important to remember that we're talking about voluntary self-regulation agreed upon with the authorities," reported the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
"When a passenger disembarks, they are just another tourist, and it's impossible to distinguish them from someone staying in a hotel. While cruise ship activity in Palma has fallen between 15 and 16% compared to before the pandemic, other tourism segments have continued to grow. If only one sector reduces its activity, residents will hardly perceive any decrease in tourist pressure."
As it stands, the forecast for 2026 predicts fewer cruise passengers than in 2025, with Mr Serrano noting that there will be approximately 1.4 million over the course of the year, "with higher concentrations in spring and autumn".
The memorandum proposes distributing passengers to other municipalities across the island: "The island offers much more than Palma's historic centre, and many cruise passengers are already familiar with the city. There is a significant percentage, especially Germans and Italians, who could discover other parts of the island," Mr Serrano added.
"We need to better understand their travel patterns and work together on promotion and mobility to facilitate this distribution. It's an opportunity to diversify tourist spending and alleviate pressure on the most crowded areas."
It also introduces several new environmental requirements, including limiting water supply during droughts and prioritising the most sustainable ships.
"98% of ships can produce potable water on board, recycling and waste treatment systems are very advanced, and nearly 40% of port calls in the western Mediterranean are by ships powered by liquefied natural gas [LNG]. Most of the fleet can connect to the electricity grid if ports have the infrastructure," he added.
The CLIA director also insisted that the claims that cruise ship passengers are low spenders in the cities they visit are a myth: "The spending of someone who stays for a few hours obviously cannot be compared to that of someone who spends several days in a hotel. But during their time in the city, cruise passengers spend money in restaurants and shops and on transport and cultural activities."
In 2025, a total of 511 cruise ships docked in Palma de Mallorca, bringing over 1.8 million passengers to the island. Under the daily regulations, only one of the three ships permitted to dock simultaneously could carry more than 5,000 passengers.