Ibiza announces major rule change for holidaying Brits next summer

Ibiza
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Ibiza is introducing new rules which could have an impact on holidaying Brits. Under the changes, two cruise ships will no longer be allowed to dock at the same time.

Thousands of cruise liners arrive at the Mediterranean island every year packed with tourists but local authorities say transport services suffer when more than one is docked at the same time. Ibiza Council says it wants to crack down on "tourist massification" because the infrastructure, at times, cannot cope with huge numbers of visitors, the Mirror reports.

So, the island will follow the lead of Majorca which last year became the first Spanish destination to regulate the arrival of cruise ships, imposing a limit of three a day into Palma. Ibiza's President, Vicent Marí, has stressed the need to work jointly with the Port Authority to regulate the simultaneous arrival of cruises to the island.

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"When the arrival of more than two cruises occurs simultaneously, the port and transport services collapse, which generates a problem in Ibiza town," he said. For this reason, he said there would be greater planning with the Port Authority to ban the simultaneous arrival of more than two cruise liners to the port of Ibiza and they hoped this would start in 2015.

The president added: "We are not against the arrival of cruises but we ask that it occurs in a more orderly and planned way. This lack of planning affects both the residents, who suffer this saturation at the time of arrival and to tourists who take a bad image of their stay."

In 2023, Ibiza beat all the historical records of arrival of cruise passengers. A total of 548,969 cruise members arrived in Ibiza, which represented an 86 per cent increase compared to the more than 295,368 passengers recorded in 2022.

Taking into account that Ibiza registered an annual resident population of 159,180 inhabitants in 2023, it is estimated that the whole of cruise members who visited the island exceeded 3.45 times the resident population. In 2023, a total of 188 cruises in transit arrived on the island, which represents an increase of 34% compared to the 140 cruises recorded in 2022.

Environmentalists have voiced deep concern over the impact of the cruise ships, with one saying: "During the 12 hours that these giants travel through our coast, they saturate the resources on which we depend deeply. This phenomenon moves us more and more from tourist sustainability and helps increase the negative impact on our ecosystems."