The French town you won’t be seeing on your cruise itinerary anymore

• The city of Cannes in France will ban cruise ships of over 1000 passengers from next year.
• The city already had plans to limit cruise, but this latest rule will greatly accelerate them.
• Cannes is one of many European cities to restrict cruise ships.

The city of Cannes is introducing a new rule that will ban ships with more than 1000 passengers from docking in the port.

Cannes Mayor David Lisnard said: “Cannes has become a major cruise ship destination, with real economic benefits. It’s not about banning cruise ships, but about regulating, organizing, setting guidelines for their navigation.”

Cannes is a picturesque town in the French Riviera, and until now, has been a common stop on European cruise itineraries.

The small town of about 75,000 people sees three million tourists each year. Last year, Cannes had 175 cruise ship visits, total of around 460,000 passengers, which represents about 15% of overall tourism.

While not an overwhelming percentage, this does represent a larger portion of overall tourism than some other European cities that are making similar moves in restricting cruise tourism, such as Amsterdam.

Cannes already had plans to slowly phase out large cruise ships, but this latest move appears to be accelerating the plan, with the new rules set to kick in from next year. The ban will also include a maximum of 6000 passengers disembarking per day.

Large cruise ships that want to visit the city will have to tender passengers, rather than docking at the port.

Cannes is part of a long list of European destinations that are pushing back against cruise ships in some form.

After Venice gained headlines for a ban on cruise, other cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, Mallorca, Valencia, Marseille, Nice, Santorini, Bruges, and more have placed restrictions on cruise.

Further north in Europe, countries like Norway and Iceland are also looking at bans and taxes to limit cruise ship traffic.

Cruise Passenger has previously analysed whether cruise is often used as a scapegoat in these situations. Meaning that when locals protest or decry overtourism and rising prices, it’s easy to point the finger at cruise ships.

Overall, cruise ship tourism represents just 1.2% of all tourism traffic to Europe.