Ibiza is to launch tough new action against the thousands of cruise ships that head to the Spanish holiday island every year.
Despite the valuable revenue generated from passengers, Ibiza council says it will control arrivals as part of a crackdown on “mass tourism”.
The new plan aims to prohibit two cruise ships from arriving at the same time.
The island will follow the example of Mallorca which became the first Spanish destination to regulate the arrival of cruise ships to Palma two years ago, imposing a limit of two per day.
The president of Ibiza, Vicent Marí, highlighted the need to work together with the Port Authority to regulate the simultaneous arrival of cruise ships to the island.
“When more than two cruise ships arrive simultaneously, port and transport services collapse, which creates a problem in Ibiza town,” he said.
Therefore, he said that there will be greater planning with the Port Authority to prohibit the simultaneous arrival of more than two cruise ships to the port of Ibiza.
“We are not against the arrival of cruises, but we ask that this occur in a more orderly and planned manner,” added the president.
“This lack of planning affects both residents, who experience saturation upon arrival, and tourists, who are left with a bad impression of their stay.”
In 2023, Ibiza broke all historical records for cruise passenger arrivals. A total of 548,969 cruise members arrived in Ibiza, which represented an increase of 86 percent compared to the more than 295,368 passengers recorded in 2022.
Considering that Ibiza recorded an annual resident population of 159,180 in 2023, it is estimated that the total number of cruise ship members visiting the island exceeded 3.45 times the resident population. In 2023, a total of 188 transit cruises arrived on the island, which represents a 34 percent increase compared to the 140 cruises recorded in 2022.
Environmentalists have expressed deep concern about the impact of cruise ships, with one saying: “During the 12 hours that these giants travel along our coast, they deeply saturate the resources we depend on. This phenomenon moves us further and further away from tourism sustainability and contributes to the negative impact on our ecosystems.”
Ibiza council says it highly values cruise ship passengers who spend around €17m (£14.3m) a year when they visit the town, promoting restaurants, bars, tourist attractions and other amenities.
However, when cruise ships arrive together, this produces huge queues at the port for taxis and public transport, which leads to major congestion in the city.
Another idea suggested is to stagger the disembarkation of passengers, rather than 5,000 at a time.
In July and August, the port of Ibiza welcomed three cruise ship arrivals at the same time on several occasions, and this will happen again in September.
“When more than two cruise ships arrive at the same time, there is a collapse of all transport services in the port and this creates a major problem for the municipality of Ibiza, which is already saturated in the summer. That is why we want to approach the Port Authority to make more appropriate planning,” said Mr Mari.