THE Palma Port Authority claimed yesterday that 40 percent of shop takings in the city came from cruise ship passengers. I find this figure rather high, especially when you take into account that the port of Palma has been largely empty of cruise ships since October, but they obviously carried out their research and have come to this conclusion. So, obviously cruise ship passengers are vital for the local economy especially in the city but it is a shame that shops are not cashing in on this lucrative market to a bigger extent. Now most cruise ships arrive in port at 8a.m. and most passengers will have disembarked by 9a.m. and will be exploring the capital. Unfortunately, most shops do not open until 9.30a.m. or even 10.30a.m. And then don´t forget that plenty of the smaller shops close for lunch at 1.30p.m. and do not re-open again until 4.30p.m., which interestingly enough is the time that most passengers are wanted back on their ship. So basically if you are a cruise ship passenger you have about three hours to spend cash in Palma (apart from the bigger stores, of couse.) And if you arrive in Palma on a Sunday then you will find that you have only a handful of shops open to spend your cash. But taking all this into account and still cruise ship passengers account for 40 percent of shop takings. So imagine if on busy cruise ship days in Palma, shops opened earlier and didn´t close for lunch. Then perhaps we would be talking even 50 percent or more.