Reuters Article on Cruise Ships & "Overtourism"

[JennyJenny]

Interesting article I just ran across.

Quotes,

"Travel experts say cruise ships - along with other day-trippers - exacerbate "overtourism" because passengers increase congestion while spending little locally.

Several European destinations including Dubrovnik, Bruges and the Greek island of Santorini, have slapped restrictions on cruise ships. Barcelona's mayor has also promised action."

 

Seems focused more on European / Mediterranean ports and I didn't see a lot of mention of Caribbean ones. Just thought I'd share for discussion.

 

"...for decades tourism authorities and ministries have only measured success in terms of increased visitor numbers.

"This model no longer works and that's probably the most important message to get out there," she said, warning that overcrowding and "Disneyfication" in some places could destroy the charms that draw tourists in the first place. If we look at numbers only, and we don't look in more detail at the impact – economic, social, environmental – we risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg."

"Thailand closed a beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" indefinitely last year to give its ecosystem time to recover."

Full article:

Top tourism spots crack down as they become victim of own success... (Reuters)

 

[CruisinUpinLife]

4 minutes ago, JennyJenny said:

Interesting article I just ran across.

Quotes,

"Travel experts say cruise ships - along with other day-trippers - exacerbate "overtourism" because passengers increase congestion while spending little locally.

Several European destinations including Dubrovnik, Bruges and the Greek island of Santorini, have slapped restrictions on cruise ships. Barcelona's mayor has also promised action."

 

Seems focused more on European / Mediterranean ports and I didn't see a lot of mention of Caribbean ones. Just thought I'd share for discussion.

 

"...for decades tourism authorities and ministries have only measured success in terms of increased visitor numbers.

"This model no longer works and that's probably the most important message to get out there," she said, warning that overcrowding and "Disneyfication" in some places could destroy the charms that draw tourists in the first place. If we look at numbers only, and we don't look in more detail at the impact – economic, social, environmental – we risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg."

"Thailand closed a beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" indefinitely last year to give its ecosystem time to recover."

Full article:

Top tourism spots crack down as they become victim of own success... (Reuters)

 

I believe this is going to be a trend we see, unfortunately.....which then adds to another thread where ships were turning away from SJ, PR and no other port scheduled.  Not the same area but if countries/cities are banning ships in particular locations, that will cause hardship on cruise lines to find backup ports to dock at.  However, I can understand why they feel the need to do this too.  Same applies if it were a land cruise and the buses, etc.

[KJ1231]

But do they cut off their nose to spite their face?

We spent $500for 4 of us on a food and culture tour in Bermuda last week. The gent that led the tour was great and as a restaurant owner himself admitted that they don't expect to make a fortune from the folks on the cruise. They know people will tend to eat and drink alcohol on the ship since it's already paid for. Their hope is that a percentage of the cruisers like Bermuda enough that next time they would fly in and stay longer. From Philadelphia I can be in Bermuda in less than 2 hours. We will go back but probably not via cruise ship unless part of a much longer itinerary. I could fly to Bermuda on a Saturday and have 4 full days in Bermuda and come home Thursday morning. (Same schedule as the 5 night cruise we did)

That said, those cities/towns need to factor in how many people return via plane, stay longer and spend much more because of the sampling they got during a cruise.

[tiny260]

I spent money pre and post cruise in Barcelona as well as every other stop when we cruised the Med, it just doesn't seem they measure the euro spend, just visitors.

[twangster]

Some business will enjoy revenue from day trippers,  some will not.  Hotels for example see little revenue from a day trip visitor.  Restaurants, transportation services, some types of stores will gain revenue.   

Hotels could be very vocal out of fear that too many day trippers will drive away visitors who will stay in their hotel.  To this end they will commission reports and lobby against day visitors.

There are always at least two sides and here we see only one side.

[Morganno]

1 hour ago, KJ1231 said:

But do they cut off their nose to spite their face?

We spent $500for 4 of us on a food and culture tour in Bermuda last week. The gent that led the tour was great and as a restaurant owner himself admitted that they don't expect to make a fortune from the folks on the cruise. They know people will tend to eat and drink alcohol on the ship since it's already paid for. Their hope is that a percentage of the cruisers like Bermuda enough that next time they would fly in and stay longer. From Philadelphia I can be in Bermuda in less than 2 hours. We will go back but probably not via cruise ship unless part of a much longer itinerary. I could fly to Bermuda on a Saturday and have 4 full days in Bermuda and come home Thursday morning. (Same schedule as the 5 night cruise we did)

That said, those cities/towns need to factor in how many people return via plane, stay longer and spend much more because of the sampling they got during a cruise.

Sorry but they are talking about European Ports in the Med. They don't need cruise ships and it's the greedy local government that is cashing in not the people. Barcelona is a prosperous European city and the capital of Catelonia. Venice witnessed recently a ship 100x the size of a normal boat enter the canal without stopping. I think this makes perfect sense and so does RC which is why they are building ships that are self contained cities. They don't really want to dock anywhere but their own islands and if they could buy 4 coco keys then they would do just that. Let's face it every hour in port is money lost in the casino and onboard activities like the SPA etc.

 

The US is lucky that you have many inpoverished nations with great sunshine to visit wereas Europe doesn't and the market will get tougher in Europe in the next few years with Norway assessing the environmental damage of cruise ships to it's Fjords. Expect all but the cleanest to be banned from visiting  this time 5 years. 

 

 

EDIT : I just want to add that I live in Belgium and they quote 

 

Turner said Belgium was among countries making major efforts to diversify tourism.

It is moving away from marketing its medieval cities like Bruges and Ghent as it tries to lure cyclists, art lovers and beer aficionados to its country lanes, cultural gems and monastery breweries - taking them off well-worn tourist trails.

 

Well we did a 50KM bike ride last weekend and only 1 out of 7 Breweries were open so perhaps the tourism reps want to speak to the breweries  

[WAAAYTOOO]

Yep. The ol' double-edged sword being swung, willy nilly.  The locals want our $$ but don't want the headaches that come with us.  Thus, we have Coco Cay.

[tiny260]

2 hours ago, Morganno said:

Barcelona is a prosperous European city and the capital of Catelonia.

I concur, when I was there in 2016 the people of Barcelona did not want the cruise ships, specifically they don't like the O class because of perceived ecological issues with something of that size.

So I agree, in the coming years as cruisers we will see less and less availability of ports in Europe. Did Royal see the writing on the wall, hence the development of the Icon class ship?

[Morganno]

Just now, tiny260 said:

I concur, when I was there in 2016 the people of Barcelona did not want the cruise ships, specifically they don't like the O class because of perceived ecological issues with something of that size.

So I agree, in the coming years as cruisers we will see less and less availability of ports in Europe. Did Royal see the writing on the wall, hence the development of the Icon class ship?

I think so they don't really want you getting off the ship at all which makes perfect sense to a company. I see more and more European cruises being offered on smaller ship as cities dictate capacity. 

[ChessE4]

4 hours ago, JennyJenny said:

Interesting article I just ran across.

Quotes,

"Travel experts say cruise ships - along with other day-trippers - exacerbate "overtourism" because passengers increase congestion while spending little locally.

Several European destinations including Dubrovnik, Bruges and the Greek island of Santorini, have slapped restrictions on cruise ships. Barcelona's mayor has also promised action."

 

Seems focused more on European / Mediterranean ports and I didn't see a lot of mention of Caribbean ones. Just thought I'd share for discussion.

 

"...for decades tourism authorities and ministries have only measured success in terms of increased visitor numbers.

"This model no longer works and that's probably the most important message to get out there," she said, warning that overcrowding and "Disneyfication" in some places could destroy the charms that draw tourists in the first place. If we look at numbers only, and we don't look in more detail at the impact – economic, social, environmental – we risk killing the goose that lays the golden egg."

"Thailand closed a beach made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" indefinitely last year to give its ecosystem time to recover."

Full article:

Top tourism spots crack down as they become victim of own success... (Reuters)

 

In contrast to these reports, there are regions where there has been an effort to welcome cruise ships.  I want to give a shout out to NZ and Australia, which we visited in January 2018.  Everywhere we went the local community literally rolled out the red carpet.  There were lots of volunteers to direct us or give us maps, shuttle buses to connect with the port, etc.  Some cities were very new to cruising, or so we were told.  Our son was attending Wollongong for a semester, and we were delighted with the welcome they provided, not to mention the free bus that circulates the city and stops near the beach.

Now the Radiance of the Seas is one of the smaller ships, and many of the environmental impact concerns seem to be targeting Oasis-class ships, but I wanted to share a short positive note.  It was my main take away from the cruise -- the friendliness of folks in Australia/NZ, and the diversity apparent in their cultures, at least in the cities we visited.

Happy cruising everyone...