According to a study by Munich-based holiday rentals agency Holidu, Palma doesn't rank among the top ten cities in Europe most overcrowded because of tourists.
The study, based on 2019 figures for tourist numbers, compared these with city populations. At the top of the list was Dubrovnik. The population was 41,671, while the number of tourists was 1.5 million, a ratio of 36 to one, well ahead of Venice with 21.3 to one.
Third was Bruges (21.1), followed by Rhodes (20.9) and Reykjavik. The rest of the top ten, in order, comprised Florence, Heraklion, Amsterdam, Dublin and Tallinn; this last city had a ratio of 9.6.
A point to be made about this study concerns population sizes and what population is actually being measured - city or metropolitan area. Reported population statistics for individual cities do tend to vary, but there is a case for saying that Palma's city population would be third highest among the ten mentioned; there would be a different picture when it comes to metropolitan areas.
Holidu doesn't give a figure for Palma, but another study (based on 2022 figures) by the European University in Madrid calculated that the number of foreign tourists was 3.1 million. While this did exclude Spanish tourists, the 3.1 million would give a ratio of 7.5 tourists for every resident; Palma's population (2022) was 415,940.
It is possible that 'saturation' in Palma has now been reduced because of the limit on cruise ships. But regardless of figures that may be produced, there is always the perception of saturation, which is arguably just as important.