The residents of Mallorca in Spain have had enough of the cruise ships and their passengers descending on their island every day. Over 11,00 people have signed a petition calling for restrictions to be placed on cruise ships docking in Palma de Mallorca, limiting the number to one per day. Currently, around 500 cruise ships dock in the city each year — and as many as eight in a single day — bringing two million passengers to the island.
Photo: EvijaF/Shutterstock
Over 11,000 Sign Petition to Restrict Cruise Ships in Mallorca
The petition claims, “The tourism of megacruises at Palma has increased in unsustainable and undesirable ways for our city, causing a serious environmental and territorial impact as well as growing social protests.” The focus of the manifesto is the negative consequences large cruise ships are having on the island’s natural environment. “Megacruises make greywater downloads 4 miles off the coast,” it says. “Such a vessel generates 200 to 400 thousand cubic meters of waste. 24% of the total solid waste found in the seas are generated by cruises.”
Last year, in July 2018, anti-tourist actions took place on the island with a group of local protestors gathered in the arrivals terminal of Palma de Mallorca International Airport with signs that read, “One Airline Every Minute is Not Sustainable” and several hotels on Mallorca reporting being vandalized with tags like “Tourism Kills the City!” 