Sadly cruising has become the ‘bad boy’ of tourism over the past few years, with growing antipathy to the larger ships and the increased ship movements that are swamping some ports with up to five or six ships and thousands of visitors every day. Anti Cruise Protests in Barcelona and Venice focused on environmental issues, pollution and also the behaviour of some cruisers. There has definitely been an increased anti-cruise feel in many parts of Europe over the last few years - so why might this have changed?

1: Absence makes the heart grow fonder…

A whole summer without visiting cruise ships may have been exactly what some ports thought they wanted but of course it has come with a massive cost - the loss of port revenue, employment and income from tourism has left many ports and communities in deep financial trouble with sky high unemployment. Tour guides, port workers, shop assistants, waiters, baristas, driver, luggage handlers, porters cannot wait until we all return. 

2: Things haven’t improved without us…

Many cruise companies - in particular MSC, Carnival and Virgin - have put an enormous amount of investment into improving the environmental qualities of their ships. The lack of cruising and ship movements has not brought about the sudden improvement in local environmental issues that residents expected. In fact in many places it has highlighted that it is local industry or traffic that is the main culprit. As life returned to normal in Genoa the air quality was no better than before.  Beaches all over the Mediterranean are littered with single-use plastic PPE that has been discarded by locals not tourists. It has been easy to blame these massive ships for all ills, particularly because they are so visible when towering above a small town - but once its apparent that although they’ve gone away the problem still remains, maybe we can hope for a more even handed reception .

3: Cruisers are ‘homesick’ for the Med too..

After a season of cancelled cruises and sitting inside our same four walls at home I like to think that we will be better, more grateful and humble tourists. It would be good to think that the Global nature of this pandemic will make us more empathetic to people and places who have been suffering too. I only hope that the necessity of taking Cruise line tours ashore will not mean the only a few large national businesses will benefit from the visiting “Cruise dollar’. I always like to make an effort to support the little businesses in local economies - local guides, shopping in markets, individual shops and bars - things won’t be the same if they are not there.

4: Cruisers now appreciate just how lucky we are…

 A lockdown summer with no cruises has certainly brought home to me how fortunate we have been over recent years and how entitled we have become. We just assumed that whatever we wanted to see or do was there, ready and waiting for us.  Hopping on and off ships and planes looking for the next bucket-list, must see, can’t miss experience ready to share on our Instagram story of FB live. Now it turns out that things have to be handled differently I think we will all appreciate  and be very grateful for what we have previously taken for granted.

5.  This could be the beginning of a new ‘Slow Cruise’ movement…

In the same way that the extremes of Nouvelle Cuisine led to the founding of the Slow Food movement  and restaurants service food celebrating ‘regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life’ I think we may see the beginning of a “slow Cruise’ movement. As the actual process of disembarking  a ship and spending a day ashore becomes more difficult, that we will become much more discerning about what we do and where we decide to visit. Maybe we will even learn to wind down, relax, stop rushing around  and appreciate our time onboard a little more.

portExploring will certainly be different for a while but I for one certainly can’t wait to be back cruising again, it will be interesting to see what changes we will find in the places we visit.

Do let me know your thoughts below