European cities move to ban cruise ships

The debate about tourism and preservation has caused friction in many historical European cities, with local residents concerned that huge influxes of tourists will destroy their city.

Most recently, activist groups in Venice in Italy, Dubrovnik in Croatia as well as Barcelona in Spain are looking to cull the number of tourists, with some singling out mega liners as bringing too many tourists to their shores.

The small city of Dubrovnik has been facing challenges, with thousands of cruisers arriving by ship and causing overcrowding.

Mato Frankovic spoke to The Telegraph UK about lowering the cap of 8,000 visitors to 4,000 to the Old City. There are three entrances into Dubrovnikโ€™s Old City with surveillance cameras acting like counters which were installed in 2017 by the former mayor, Andro Vlahusiฤ‡.

โ€œWe donโ€™t want to go with the maximum, we want to go lower than that. I am not here to make people happy but to make the quality of life better,โ€ he told The Telegraph.

โ€œSome of the cruise lines will disagree with what Iโ€™m saying but my main goal is to ensure quality for tourists and I cannot do it by keeping the situation as it is.โ€

Dubrovnikโ€™s Unesco world heritage status was at risk, much like Venice and Barcelona. And Mr Frankovic is trying to make sure Dubrovnik does not become like the popular Italian and Spanish cities.

In June, Venetians voted to ban giant cruise ships from the cityโ€™s lagoon with more than 18,000 locals voting in an unofficial referendum.

As many as 30,000 cruise ship passenger visit the city daily during peak season which puts an enormous strain on the already decaying city. Earlier this year, the United Nations said that Venice would be put on Unescoโ€™s list of endangered sites if they did not ban cruise ships from the lagoon by 2017.

Locals in Barcelona have also been protesting heavily after the city received over 12 million visitors.

Chimu Adventures co-founder Chad Carey added that with the overpopulated tourist haunts no longer as desirable, an โ€˜out-of-this-worldโ€™ opportunity is becoming more elusive, and yet more sought after.

โ€œPeople are looking for these โ€˜other-worldlyโ€™ experiences,โ€ he told Travel Weekly.

โ€œWith things like Virgin Galactic coming up, theyโ€™re out of reach for most people, but Antarctica is at a good price point so more people can afford it.โ€

Intrepidโ€™s CEO James Thornton told Travel Weekly that itโ€™s about sustainability to make sure that these hotspots are maintained.

โ€œResponsible travel is about the attitude you take and the choices you make when travelling โ€“ to respect and benefit local people, their cultures, economy and the environment,โ€ he said.

โ€œCities like Venice and Barcelona certainly seem to be suffering from the influx of super-sized cruise ships.โ€

What do you think? ย Leave us a comment below if you’ve been to these cities on a cruise

5 thoughts on “European cities move to ban cruise ships”

  1. My daughter loved Santorini, and she found three cruise ships there. She cruises the islands on a ferry and stayed in a little white cottage, hired a moped and drove around after sunrise, although a taxi knocked her over when he opened his door.
    He was very apologetic but she was ok.

  2. I agree that there are, perhaps, too many large ships in some of these destinations, however banning them completely will have a devastating effect on the local economy. Many businesses rely on the tourist dollar to survive, and there is also financial benefit to the cities from the port taxes each passenger pays as part of their fare. So what will the cities do? increase taxes for locals to maintain the city, therefore reducing their quality of life. Not as easy as it may seem….

  3. I agree, too many mega ships and too many tourists are destroying these beautiful cities. Cutting down on these will probably help, with smaller ships every few days and maybe the mega ones once a week…

  4. I have visited all the ports mentioned on cruises and have been privileged to do so.
    In fact had it not been for a cruise visiting those cities I would not have visited the cities. However one port that cannot cope with the large ships these days is Santorini, I visited recently when there were three or four ships “in port”. Absolute bedlam. The congestion spoiled what ought to have been a wonderful day.Surely the port authorities could regulate the number of visits such as proposed for the cities in the articles.

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