Cruise Tourism in Mallorca. An Analysis of the Current Situation and the Impacts of Cruise Tourism as a Part of Mass Tourism on Mallorca

Abstract

[eng] This study analyses the economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts of mass tourism compared to those derived from cruise tourism. The economic impact of cruise tourism is relatively small compared to other tourism sectors. Contrary to this, cruise tourism contributes more than passenger aircrafts to the air pollution and leads to additional environmental problems than those derived from mass tourism. The social and cultural impacts are hard to measure, but also here cruise tourism has specific impacts, as cruise tourists generally only visit the city centre of Palma and stay for a short time, but a huge number of people come at the same time. In terms of numbers, the share of cruise passengers compared to the tourists arriving on the island is proportionately small. Only 6,9% of the tourists in Mallorca are cruise tourists, while most of the tourists still arrive by airplane or other mean of transport. In addition to this, a survey has been carried out to learn about the attitudes of the residents. The survey did not show any clear preference if tourism and especially cruise tourism have more positive or negative effects in Mallorca.