The five ports managed by the Balearic Islands Port Authority—Palma, Alcudia, Mahón, Ibiza, and La Savina—are primarily commercial ports and supply hubs for each of the islands. From this perspective, they are fundamental and irreplaceable elements of the island economies. However, they are also, and very significantly, tourist ports: gateways for tourists who choose maritime transport over air travel, ports of call for cruise ships, locations for important nautical and sports facilities, and bases for a growing number of charter and maritime excursion activities.
Shipping companies are putting new types of ships (the "Milenium", the "Sorolla", the "Fortuny", the "Federico García Lorca") into service on the Balearic Islands routes, which are faster and more comfortable, to make crossings shorter and more entertaining.
Passenger numbers passing through the Balearic ports are small compared to the traffic at our airports, but by no means negligible, as growth is expected and is linked not only to traditional tour groups but also to a more personalized type of tourism, often inextricably linked to family car travel. In 2001, approximately 808.000 passengers passed through Palma, 74.000 through Alcudia, 137.000 through Mahón, and 398.000 through Ibiza. It is worth noting, as a separate figure not included in the above, the 458.000 people, mostly tourists, who visited the island of Formentera from Ibiza on regular ferry services.
According to 2001 data, with 639.000 cruise passengers, the Balearic Islands Port Authority ranks second among Spain's 27 port authorities in cruise traffic. The Port of Palma, with 429 cruise ships and 531.000 passengers, is the fifth busiest cruise port in the Mediterranean, after Piraeus, Limassol, Barcelona, and Rhodes. The Port of Mahón, a small port within the Spanish port system, is only surpassed in cruise traffic by six other Spanish ports: Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Málaga, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas, and Cádiz.
Both the port of Mahón and the port of Ibiza are ports of call, where tourists spend a few hours as part of an itinerary. The port of Palma, in addition to being a port of call, is a home port, where more than half of cruise passengers begin and end their journey. This is the "fly-stay-cruise" tourism product, managed by large British and German tour operators who generally offer an integrated package including flights, transfers, a week at the beach, and a week on a cruise.
The Balearic Islands' ports also boast significant nautical facilities, to the point that they become part of the image visitors retain of our ports: large marinas filled with yachts. In fact, the offering, largely managed by private operators and yacht clubs, is of high quality. For example, Palma has 1670 berths for boats 10 meters or more in length, Alcudia 440, Mahón 980, Ibiza 620, and La Savina 170. This totals 3880 spaces, mostly occupied by permanently based vessels, although many are available to nautical tourists who visit us with their transient boats during July and August.
Nautical chartering, the rental of recreational boats, is also highly developed in the Balearic Islands. More than 25 companies are dedicated to this activity, with a fleet based in the ports of the Port Authority of over 400 vessels, most of them sailboats. The port of Palma, with a fleet of some 240 boats, is the leading port in Spain for nautical charters. This tourism product is marketed in the European market directly by nautical companies, but also, and increasingly, through agencies specializing in holidays at sea, which sell packages that include, among other services, boat rental and flights.
Another tourist activity based in the ports is maritime excursions. This is a growing sector, with an estimated volume of 150.000 excursionists in Palma, 40.000 in Alcudia, 150.000 in Mahón, 200.000 in Ibiza, and 70.000 in La Savina. In total, 610.000 tourists have taken a maritime excursion from one of the five ports of the Port Authority this year.
Therefore, it can be summarized that the ports of the Balearic Islands, in addition to supplying the population and the economy of each island with all the necessary goods; from fuels to construction materials, from food products to cars, have the unique characteristic of being ports highly integrated into the tourism economy of the Balearic Islands, offering quality services to our visitors.
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