In the end, the mayor of Ibiza, Rafa Ruiz, will be right. Last Sunday, Diario de Ibiza published an article related to the possible regulation of cruise ships in which Ruiz added that, from his office, he could see every day how the port activity continues to grow in es Botafoc, where the ships of the regular transport of goods, passengers and vehicles operate with the ports of Palma, Denia, Valencia or Barcelona. There is not a day when the five mooring points in this area are not occupied: four on the two jetties and another on the dock itself.
Data from the Balearic Islands Port Authority (APB) now prove him right. In the first five months of this year, the ports of Ibiza and La Savina, which are of general interest and therefore managed by this port authority, have recovered the activity prior to the health crisis caused by the coronavirus since mid-March 2020.
The Vila docks have managed from January to May this year the passage of a total of 704,531 passengers (in or out of the island), representing a growth of 58% over the same period last year, when 396,713 travelers were counted, and a slight drop of 1.8% compared to 2019, the last year of the ‘old normality’ precovid. This section includes all traffic, both cabotage (with other ports of the Peninsula and with Palma) and the Pitiuso.
470,688 passengers with the Savina Port
In fact, the differences are very similar in the case of the Savina. The APB statistics indicate that in these first five months the line between the Pitiusas Islands has generated a total of 470,688 movements, while from January to May last year the figure was 259,015. This implies an increase in activity of 82%.
If we compare these data with the pre-coronavirus era, we find a small decrease, of just 5%, since in the first five months of 2019 this line, one of the busiest in the world, then moved 496.057 passengers.
With regard to May alone, the month that kicks off the summer season on the islands, the Ibizan port welcomed and saw off a total of 257,567 passengers, 56% more than in the same month of 2021 and even 8% more than in 2019, when the APB counted 238.542, which represents 19,025 less than this fiscal year.
In traffic between Vila and La Savina, May also provided figures much higher than last year: 192,018 compared to 118,648 passengers, a growth of 62%. And more activity also compared to 2019, with 191.445 passengers in the fifth month of the year, 573 less than now.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.