- The Ibiza & Formentera Preservation Sustainability Observatory warns that the increased capacity of ships necessitates analyzing the impact of cruise tourism beyond the number of ships arriving at the island.
- In 2025, 537,951 cruise passengers arrived in Ibiza on 165 cruise ships, compared to the 395,235 passengers who disembarked from the 163 ships that arrived in 2019.
Ibiza, August 4, 2026 – Analysis of cruise traffic data for 2025 by the Ibiza & Formentera Preservation Sustainability Observatory reveals a shift in the cruise industry model in Ibiza . Last year , 537,951 passengers arrived on the island aboard 165 cruise ships, a 36% increase compared to 2019, when 395,235 people disembarked from 163 cruise ships. Although the number of vessels has remained relatively stable, the increase in passenger volume suggests the arrival of larger ships , a development that, according to the environmental foundation, necessitates a rethinking of how to measure the impact of cruise tourism on the island.
The Ibiza Sustainability Observatory uses 2019 as a baseline year, as it was the last year before the pandemic with a fully established cruise industry. After the collapse recorded in 2020 and 2021 and the recovery that began in 2022, passenger volume reached record highs in 2023 and 2024. Although 537,951 cruise passengers disembarked in 2025, 7.2% fewer than the 579,485 recorded in 2024, activity remained well above pre-pandemic levels . With only two more cruise ships than in 2019, last year saw 142,716 more passengers arrive , a trend that clearly demonstrates the transformation experienced by this type of tourism.
These data, extracted from the official statistics of IBESTAT, prepared from the information provided by the Balearic Islands Port Authority (Ports de les Illes Balears) , form part of the Ibiza Sustainability Report 2025 , currently in the process of preparation and financed entirely by the Consell Insular d’Eivissa.
“For years the debate about cruise ships has focused on the number of ships, but the data shows that this indicator is no longer enough to understand their impact. Today, practically the same number of ports of call arrive as a few years ago, but with a much higher passenger capacity,” explains Elisa Langley, coordinator of the Sustainability Observatory of Ibiza & Formentera Preservation.
More than 75,000 cruise passengers per month during the summer
The increase in passenger numbers is also reflected in tourism pressure indicators. Between June and September, more than 75,000 cruise passengers disembarked in Ibiza each month , with most of the activity concentrated during the peak season. In 2025, the island registered 327 cruise passengers per 100 inhabitants . The cruise activity recorded in 2025 also confirms that all 165 cruise ships that arrived on the island were in transit —those whose port of origin and destination is not Ibiza and which, therefore, do not stay overnight. Although this figure is lower than the 191 cruise ships registered in 2024 , it remains among the highest in the entire historical series that began in 2006, along with 2017 (183 cruise ships), 2019 (163), and 2023 (188).
The fact that Ibiza is not a final cruise destination meant that last year each passenger stayed on the island for an average of only 4.48 hours , a very limited time frame in which thousands of visitors coincide simultaneously in the main tourist and commercial areas, increasing the pressure on the city of Eivissa, where practically all the disembarkations are concentrated, reaching 985 cruise passengers for every 100 residents in the municipality.
“The pressure exerted by a cruise ship doesn’t depend solely on the time it spends docked. Thousands of people converge in the same space for just a few hours, and this has effects on mobility, public services, and the city’s capacity to accommodate them,” Langley points out. Across the Balearic Islands , cruise ships that called at the port of Ibiza represented 26.8% of the 616 cruise ships in transit registered in the archipelago. Although this percentage is lower than the 30.8% reached in 2024, the island continues to account for more than a quarter of all cruise activity in the Balearic Islands.
Adapting regulations to the new scenario
In light of these results, the Ibiza & Formentera Preservation Sustainability Observatory believes it is necessary to adapt cruise tourism regulations to the changes experienced in recent years. In this regard, it proposes establishing limits not only on the number of cruise ships that can arrive at the island, but also on the size of the vessels and the total number of passengers who can disembark each day, preventing several large ships from arriving on the same day and thus reducing pressure on the port, traffic, and key tourist areas.
It also proposes prohibiting the unloading of any waste from cruise ships that cannot be treated by the existing management systems on the island , limiting its reception exclusively to waste previously separated for recycling and avoiding increasing the pressure on already saturated infrastructures.
“Cruise ships generate an impact that goes beyond emissions or tourist saturation. Even ships in transit unload some of the waste generated on board for treatment, increasing the pressure on an already very limited island waste management system. Ibiza cannot take on waste it hasn’t generated, especially when some of the waste already has to be transported to Mallorca for incineration, with the consequent economic and environmental costs,” Langley adds.
The report also proposes implementing specific regulations to reduce the environmental impact of cruise ships while docked, favoring their mandatory connection to the electrical grid via Onshore Power Supply (OPS) systems and limiting the operation of auxiliary engines to reduce atmospheric emissions, pollution, and noise in the port area. It further suggests that the number of cruise ships docked simultaneously should be adjusted to the available electrical connection capacity until shore power supply is expanded.
