The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has presented a long list of proposals that will go to the Sustainability Committee with the intention of easing tourism saturation. The most important is to "regulate, limit or prohibit the arrival of certain cruise ships, and permit only small and medium-sized ones. We also propose limiting the number of cruise ships or allowing only those that have Palma as their home port," said the mayor, who is also in favour of regulating or limiting the entry of rental cars into the city.
Martínez also announced that he wants to create "two taxes for cruise passengers: one for the arrival in port and another for access to the city". In addition, he has called for "the revision of rubbish charges in all ports and to limit the number of tourist groups, as well as guided tours to avoid the intrusion of tourist guides, establishing a limit" on the number of participants.
Martínez also proposed "limiting or banning 'party boats'; revising rubbish and water charges for holiday stays; and increasing surveillance of illegal holiday lets in order to eradicate illegal holiday tourism in Palma. The mayor also announced that Palma will prohibit new tourist rental places in all its forms.
Other measures include a request to the Government Delegation for more police, either from the National Police or the Guardia Civil and a ban on alcohol consumption in the street, except in certain places. One possibility suggested by Martínez is the creation of park-and-ride car parks and improving public transport, collaborating with all the administrations, including the Government Delegation, on Operation Cloud days when there is a massive influx of people into the centre of Palma due to bad weather, and creating a waste tax for take-away establishments, ice cream parlours and patisseries.
The measures that Martínez has proposed "will have to be debated" and that he hopes there will be consensus "with the other political parties, social and neighbourhood organisations and experts. In order to make decisions we need data". These proposals will be presented in the plenary session this Thursday and, even if they do not have the consensus of the other parties, "they will be carried out".
Martínez explained that "Palma has a population of 450,000 registered inhabitants, but we have a lot of visitors. We only have 50,000 tourist places but that is not the problem. Palma is the gateway for millions of tourists and we have a large floating population of second homes. A study needs to be carried out to find out the numbers".