Nice and Cannes look to ban large cruise ships from 2025

• Nice looks to ban cruise large cruise ships from July 1, 2025.
• Cannes is also looking at the same strategy as its neighbouring city.
• The mayor of Nice will look to ban ships of 900 passengers or more.

One of the most popular French cruise destinations is looking to ban large-capacity ships.

On January 21, 2025, Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi announced plans to ban ships of 900 passengers or more from docking in his city on the French Riviera.

He had cited environmental concerns and told Riviera Radio that he wanted to stop ships that “consume nothing and leave their waste behind” in the UNESCO World Heritage site.

Estrosi’s proposed ban would go into effect on July 1, 2025 and the mayor is attempting to “cancel all cruises that can still be cancelled ahead of drafting a banning order.”

According to Cruise Hive, Marella Cruises, Cunard and Celebrity Cruises have sailings scheduled in July, all of which cater to over 1500 passengers.

Cunard’s Queen Victoria carries 2061 guests while the Celebrity Equinox hosts 2850 passengers.

Even Oceania Cruises’ Vista with 1200 passengers would be banned from the French port and during the peak of summer, Celebrity Ascent with 3260 passengers is slated to arrive in August.

Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas are scheduled to make calls in September with 3602 and 4290 passengers, respectively.

Cannes, just near to Nice, also saw 318,000 cruise passengers in 2024, compared to a population of 75,000. They too are considering a ban to restrict large cruise ships from docking.

Where else in Europe is putting restrictions on the cruise industry?

Cruise tourism around Europe has been under a microscope, with a number of popular destinations, either capping or imposing special levies for cruisers.

The Greek Government is considering a new “disembarkation levy” on cruise passengers who visit popular islands like Santorini and Mykonos to combat over-tourism.

The proposed fee will look at charging passengers €10 after the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis made comments earlier this year about capping cruise numbers to the country’s most popular islands.

“We support both traditional tourism and cruise ship arrivals. We are looking to increase the disembarkation fee to €10 at Santorini and other popular destinations,” he told a SKAI TV, a Greek broadcaster.

Venice in 2021 put a ban on large cruise ships from entering the Grand Canal. Ships that were heavier than 25,000 gross tonnes were forced to dock at outer ports like Fusina and Marghera.

But it did not stop the influx of tourists – around 540,000 cruise passengers arrived in the city last year and as a result, the city implemented a €5.00 fee during peak season and the city plans to double it in 2025.

Barcelona too has started a staged process of moving cruise ships from the city centre.