With the summer season full upon us, tourists from across Europe and further afield are beginning to descend on Spain and its popular island hotspots in their thousands. This weekend – the first weekend of August – will be no exception. On Saturday (August 2), four cruise ships are set to descend on Majorca’s capital, Palma, with a combined maximum passenger capacity of over 15,000.
This figure is far above the 8,000-passenger daily limit established by the Balearic Government and the CLIA cruise lines association agreed in 2022. Under this agreement, there are meant to be no more than three ships per day with 500 or more passengers, and only one having in excess of 5,000 passengers. Of the four ships scheduled for this weekend, the Seabourn Ovation is the smallest with 600 passengers. Marella Cruises’ Marella Voyager has a capacity of 1,900. However, there are two ships – the German AIDAcosma and MSC Virtuosa – that are in the “megaship” category. Both have absolute maximum capacities over 6,000. The exact capacities of all four ships combined are 15,504.
The agreement, the Balearic tourism ministry has highlighted, has no legal obligation. It was “a memorandum of good practices” and a sign of commitment to tourism containment policies in Majorca, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
The Balearic Government does not have the power to establish a legal obligation – this power resides with the Spanish Government via the transport ministry and the State Ports – a network of 46 ports distributed across Spain’s coastline.
However, while the government is citing a lack of legal obligation to explain the huge number of cruise ship tourists on Saturday, the CLIA has offered no explanation. As a result, overtourism and environmentalist pressure groups have questioned the effectiveness of the agreement and shared criticisms.
Jaume Garau, vice president of pressure group Palma XXI, one of more than 20 associations that form the Fòrum de la Societat Civil for the reconstruction of the Balearic Islands, said: “This is not the first time they have overstepped the limit; they have done it before”.
In fact, during the May bank holiday weekend, up to five cruise ships docked at the same time on Monday (May 5), with 23 cruise ships docking in the port – including four mega-cruise ships – in the space of a week. This was over 21% more than in the same period in 2024, raising more questions about whether the 2022 agreement needs to be revised.
Meanwhile, Margalida Ramis, from the environmentalists GOB – which are actively working to protect the island’s surroundings – has questioned the usefulness of an agreement that is not legally binding: “This is an agreement that lacks any solidity and is not a legitimate tool. There must be an agreement that goes beyond good intentions.”
The agreement between the local government and CLIA will expire at the end of next year. Before it can be renewed, the government is waiting on the findings of a study into the impact of cruise ship restrictions before making its decision. The Platform against Mega Cruise Ships advocates a maximum of one ship per day with no more than 4,000 passengers and is demanding civil society participation in the decision.