Tom Stieghorst
With cruise lines building bigger and bigger ships, a conflict is brewing with some of the destinations that those ships will use.
A tourism backlash in a growing number of ports puts the cruise industry on a collision course with residents of some busy cruise ports and the politicians that represent them.
This is particularly worrisome in Europe, where lines such as AIDA Cruises and MSC Cruises are planning ships capable of carrying more than 6,000 guests, and where ports such as Venice are already restrictive.
As detailed by Elizabeth Becker in a recent cover story for Travel Weekly, Barcelona could be the next flash point.
In her story, cruise passengers are categorized, or mis-categorized, as "zombie tourists" by the CEO of the Barcelona Institute for Culture, who infers that they buy a beverage or a souvenir, take an escorted bus tour and leave litter in their wake.
If they do nothing else, the cruise lines and their associations should put their heads together to combat that stereotype, which is becoming accepted as fact in certain discussions about tourism overcrowding.
It might also be worth pointing out that many of the tourists that come to Barcelona in connection with a ship are not day tourists, but board and disembark on turnarounds. For passengers coming from North America, this almost always involves at least one night's hotel stay pre- or post-cruise.
Another thing that cruise lines might do is meet with cultural ministers to find out if there are ways to ease the practical exploration of European cities, with their crowded city centers, by groups from large ships.
The discussion should focus not on small ships, with their exclusive events, but mass ships with scale.
Cruise lines typically cite the spending by passengers, crews, and for ship's provisions as an offset for any burdens cruise tourism may create. That's both a reasonable answer and insufficient.
It isn't going to sway the Barcelona resident whose favorite tapas bar is overrun by a group from a ship, or who feels the atmosphere on Las Ramblas is becoming more like a carnival midway than a pleasant place to stroll.
Cruise lines don't want to kill their proverbial golden goose, just as these big new ships arrive. Where I live, Miami Beach club owners have made a fortune off of serving alcohol until 5 a.m., mostly to tourists, but complaints about nuisance behavior, noise and crime have persuaded politicians to set a November referendum on a 2 a.m. closing time for some Ocean Drive bars.
The cruise industry needs to be proactive to head off any new restrictions on cruise passenger traffic at ports around the Mediterranean.