by Graeme Robertsen

 

 

1. Facts and Figures

2. Trends and Perspectives

3. Impacts: Best and Worst case examples

- Alaska

- Mexico and Central America

- Bermuda

- Caribbean

- Hawaii

- Tasmania

4. Discussion regarding conflicts and benefits

5. Examples of working models

6. Analysis of the most important fields of action

 

 

 

 

There is a paucity of studies and little academic literature on cruise ship tourism despite it being the fastest growing sector in the tourism industry. With an 8% annual growth since 1980, it has increased at almost twice the rate of tourism overall. A record 8.5 million people took cruises worldwide in 1997. The North American market (which includes the Caribbean) is the dominant one, and in 1997 it grew by 8.6% to reach a record 5.05 million cruise passengers. In 1998, 71 cruise ships (which can carry over 93,000 passengers) from 24 lines plied the Caribbean, some year-round and some seasonally.

 

Although North America now accounts for almost 80% of total cruise passengers, this dominance is expected to decline as other markets mature. International cruise revenue is estimated at US$17 billion a year. The Caribbean is likely to maintain its position as the most popular cruise destination in the world because of increasing preference for shorter cruises and an ever-younger market. The 2-5 day cruise accounts for some 37% of the total product.

 

The Caribbean, accounting for 50% of capacity in 1999, is the most popular cruise ship destination. Its convenient proximity to North America makes it an easily accessible 'pleasure periphery' for that market. Miami has ensured its place as the major hub from which most ships into the region operate, with up to 30 departures a week. Other major destinations include the Mediterranean (15%), Alaska (8%) trans-Panama Canal (6%), west Mexico (5%) and northern Europe (4%). The length of the cruise season in these locations, however, is determined by climatic conditions.

 

The South Pacific as a destination attracts only 2.2% of the world's biggest and most lucrative cruise market, North America, and Australia's own cruise passenger generating capacity has remained consistently low and very specific in its product requirement.

 

The 'big three' cruise companies are Carnival, Royal Caribbean International and Princess that collectively control over two-thirds of the North American market. Star Cruises, a Malaysian-based company which caters primarily to Asian tourists aims to be the fourth largest. On the Asian ships a high percentage of passengers cruise in order to access gambling facilities that are not readily - or legally - available in their home countries, while the ships provide many activities to occupy their families.

 

The mid 1970s was a period of international crisis in fuel supplies and costs; this affected itinerary planning for the Pacific considerably, with some shipping lines withdrawing from the market altogether or canceling cruises, both moves having long reaching effects on island economies. It was estimated that cruise passengers spent $40 a day in ports and the cancellation of two cruises in 1974 for instance, was estimated to mean loss of $100,000 to small businesses in various Pacific ports. P&O reduced the speed of its ships, which meant arriving at ports a little later and leaving earlier. The reduced port time affected the income of people like handicraft sellers and transport operators, the two sectors of Pacific communities which managed to benefit directly from tourism.

 

Numerous Caribbean islands now receive substantially more cruises than they do stopover tourists. Since stayover tourists are far more economically beneficial to Caribbean countries than cruise day visitors, the shift away from the former towards the latter represents an alarming trend for the region.

 

Competition to add exotic ports of call has been intense, with Cunard adding 55 and Crystal Cruise Lines 24 new ports of call in 1998 alone.

 

The sharp increases in passenger capacity have been made possible by larger and still larger ships, whose economies of scale have produced record profits for the largest cruise lines. The size of many new ships, however, also dictates their cruising routes: they are simply too big to pass through the Panama Canal into the Pacific and are therefore restricted to the Caribbean and Mediterranean 'ponds'. They have flatter hulls than their predecessors and this, coupled with increasingly tall superstructures, means they are unsuitable for dealing with oceans and seas in those regions of the world that experience severe winds and currents e.g. the Pacific. (See very recent article from IMO News which reports on measures to ensure that the safety regime keeps pace with this trend toward ever larger vessels)

 

The cruise sector's ability to increase its passengers has been based on its success in reaching beyond its traditional upper and upper-middle class base into the middle-class mass market. Both the average age and the average income of cruise passengers have fallen steadily.

 

An important part of the strategy of the mass-market cruise companies has been to define land-based resorts such as Orlando and Las Vegas as their competition and to market their ships themselves as resort destinations. The ship is sold as the primary destination, not the ports it docks at. Indeed, 'destinational cruising' - where the ports are central to consumer choice and experience - is now considered within the sector to be a niche market.

 

The hotel and entertainment giants have been increasing their presence in the cruise business. It has been widely commented that the new mass-market ships seem more like floating theme parks, artificial islands largely replacing real-life destinations.

 

The rhetoric of globalization is very much evident in the pronouncements of cruise leaders. Cruise ships represent the ultimate in globalization: physically mobile; chunks of multinational capital; capable of being "repositioned" anywhere in the world at any time; crewed with labor migrants from up to 50 countries on a single ship; essentially unfettered by national or international regulations.

 

Globalization of the cruise sector has also led to increased internationalization of ownership and further concentration in this business, with a massive shakeout reducing the number of players. The pace of mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies has been dizzying over the past two decades.

 

Globalization is also seen in the construction of a new terminal in the Grenadines. This will host mainly US-based cruise ships flying foreign flags and is being jointly financed by the European Investment Bank and the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development, and constructed by a Kuwaiti firm.

 

The strong growth during the 1990s of the Asian cruise industry, particularly for Asian passengers, has interested industry watchers, especially in the light of the widespread Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s and the recurring political unrest in the region. Significant investment in infrastructure prompted by strong growth has ensured that Singapore will remain the hub for Asian cruise operators. Star Cruises has excelled in opening up the market but has also needed to invest substantially in appropriate regional infrastructure. They spent US$40 million at Port Klang, the port for Kuala Lumpur and US$12 million at Langkawi. Further developments are also planned for Phuket, Thailand.

 

The Japanese market remains elusive. Traditionally, the Japanese have preferred to cruise on Japanese-owned and operated ships and, unlike the growing preference for the cruise experience in other Asian markets, Japanese interest has remained more or less static since the mid 1990s, resting at about 200,000 passengers annually. In contrast, Koreans have taken to cruising enthusiastically, although they too prefer nationally owned and operated ships.

 

Cruise companies and the industry's professional organizations (CLIA and ICCL) paint a rosy picture that all is well - see the Guide to Cruising from the ICCL website. However, the following regional summary reveals a somewhat different and fairly consistent series of impacts and problems. But things are steadily improving, especially this year. For example, in June 2001 Alaska became the first US state to pass legislation regulating the industry and the ICCL announced that its members have unanimously adopted mandatory environmental standards for all their cruise ships.

 

 

Alaska

 

Several articles illustrate the heated debate in this State. The Alaska Dept of Environmental Conservation has been leading detailed discussions with the cruise ship industry, the state and federal government about waste management and disposal practices of cruise ships in state waters. This forum become known as the Alaska Cruise Ship Initiative and an Executive Steering Committee convened in January 2000 now directs the ACSI and its various work groups. Their website provides full information about their efforts to improve environmental standards and take the cruise ship industry beyond minimal compliance. The Bluewater Network campaign was obviously successful in lobbying lawmakers in Alaska to introduce bills that would require cruise ships to monitor and report regularly to the state environmental agency on all pollutants discharged into state waters and all wastes offloaded at ports.

 

Ted Manning cites the problems in Alaska where at some small ports up to six ships arrive at once in communities of a few hundred. He thinks 7 is the record in Seward. He is also anticipating a similar situation in Nunavut as more ships visit in the small window of opportunity in late summer. The largest settlement in Canada's north has less inhabitants than the average ship, and most only 100-300. A town like Pagnirtung with a beautiful fjord setting is beginning to attract several ships each year and there are fears of significant transformation of the local economy and society. This new territory does not yet have any strategy for dealing with the tourist influx.

 

 

Mexico and Central America

 

In 1998, 742 cruise vessels were reported in Cozumel and the maximum at one time was 11, although there are berths for up to 13 ships. With larger ships, many arriving at once, the numbers stress the existing capacity of the small town of San Miguel, as well as the available infrastructure.

 

Last year Manning visited the San Blas islands of Panama where even their small ship (700) exceeded the population on the visited islands several fold -and at times two or more larger ships visit at the same time - totally transforming the port island into a circus of vendors.

 

Michael Lueck makes reference to a tv programme The Environmental Tourist - An Ecotourism Revolution which was produced by the National Audubon Society and TBS Productions in Washington, D.C. It has a section on an American diving cruise ship that goes to Belize and spits out about 300-350 divers at a time. He comments "this is an enormous amount and the worst thing is that the ship doesn't even dock in Belize. There is absolutely no benefit for the local people at all but the negative impacts on the fragile reef are tremendous." He didn't know if the ship is still operating because local people lobbied against it in a big way. (Belize Cruise Tourism Policy)

 

 

Bermuda

 

The executive summary of a report on the benefit of the cruise ship industry to Bermuda's economy poses some serious questions and it would be interesting to find out if their authorities have investigated them further.

 

 

Caribbean

 

Fantasy theming and simulation are endemic on most cruiseships. The ultimate in fantasyscapes on Caribbean cruises is not on the ship, however. It is to be found on "fantasy islands", privately owned by the cruise companies, off-limits to all but their passengers and employees, and marketed as the true Caribbean experience - only better. Of the 8 major cruiselines operating regularly in the Caribbean, six own private islands which they include among their ports of call. They are Half Moon Cay, Casaway Cay, Great Stirrup Cay, Princes Cay, Serena Cay, Coco Cay or at Labadee. The last is not actually an island but a piece of Haiti, surrounded by a ten-foot high iron wall, patrolled by armed guards. Disney dredged sand from the Casaway Cay bay and then ground it up further to make the island's beaches conform to a touristic image of Edenic perfection. It goes without saying that the development of private island destinations has been alarming to Caribbean countries, for in essence a local port is being cut out of the cruise itinerary in the process. The company reaps the economic rewards of renting their passengers everything from snorkelling equipment to cabanas to small boats, and selling them drinks and souvenirs at company-owned shops and markets. The already limited contribution of cruise passengers to local Caribbean economies is further eroded.

 

A further development of enclave-based encapsulation of cruise tourists (and their dollars) is the creation of private clubs for passengers in Caribbean ports of call.

 

To some extent Caribbean destinations are imitating the cruise ships, introducing theming in the port city landscapes (such as Aruba, whose main street feels very much like a theme park) and creating manmade, artificial attractions, divorced from the geographical environment, as in St. Maarten.

 

The image of Dominica calling itself 'the Nature Island of the Caribbean' and free from mass tourism was severely dented in the late 1980s. It is the cruise-ship tourists (and their highly visible profile) who some critics believe have compromised the government's previous commitment to ecotourism. Cruise-ship arrivals rose spectacularly from 11,500 in 1986 to 124,765 in 1994. With a new cruise-ship berth at the Cabrits National Park, in the north of the island, and an improved deep-water facility near the capital, Roseau, up to 1,000 people per day pour off the cruise ships. Most of them take a whirlwind tour by minibus of a few of the island's best-known and most accessible sites. Ken Dill, a Dominican tour operator who specializes in hikes to the interior and nature tours warned that "if cruise ships develop to four or five a day and 4 or 5 times a week, it will be a turn-off for the ecotourists." Dill has to make sure his own customers do not bump into the cruise tourists when they visit the Emerald Pool, a short nature trail in the Morne Trois National Park leading to small waterfall. The carrying capacity of three sites, including the Emerald Pool, is being studied but there are some forestry experts who consider that places like the Emerald Pool will have to be 'sacrificed'.

 

In Grenada, the Tourist Board has called for stiffer penalties for crimes against tourists when one cruise line threatened to stop calling at St.George's because of passenger harassment by vendors.

 

Pattullo writes that "it is the dumping of cruise ship waste that has been the focus of most concern. Cruises to the region have recorded a phenomenal growth rate and it has been estimated by the IMO that up to two kilograms of waste per person per day is generated. While some cruise ships have their own waste-processing facilities, many more do not." She makes the excellent point that "the attempt to clean up the ocean has also put extra strain on the land-based facilities of islands. In fact, the reason why not all countries have signed MARPOL is that to sign it would increase the pressure on their own land dumps. By not signing it, countries are not obliged to provide waste-disposal facilities and can refuse to accept garbage from cruise ships. Yet according to the IMO, which with the World Bank is organizing a project to deal with ship-generated wastes, this tempts cruise ships to dump at sea, whether legally or illegally."

 

 

Hawaii

 

A government article outlines the potential impacts and concludes the cruise market could represent a very valuable new visitor segment for their economy although there is the possibility of some diversion of visitors from land-based resorts. Taking advantage of this opportunity would mean making a commitment to improving quality of port facilities.

 

 

Tasmania

 

The potential problems of allowing cruise ships to visit the Port Davey/Bathurst Harbour region of Tasmania's South West World Heritage Area are outlined in an article of Tasmanian Conservation Trust.

 

Ngaire Douglas in her chapter claims "the days when cruise ships routinely dumped waste overboard are over, although isolated instances are still reported. Large cruise lines such as P&O are keen to publicise their concern for the environment, while a number of smaller companies, whose reputations are built on their interaction with relatively remote and 'unspoiled' destinations, are taking an active part in the conservation of these destinations."

 

The Bluewater Network would disagree with this viewpoint. Along with their petition to the EPA they sent a report Cruising for Trouble: Stemming the Tide of Cruise Ship Pollution. Bluewater charged cruise ships produce enormous volumes of completely unregulated or inadequately regulated waste. Their executive director, Russell Long, said "It is time for the EPA to crack down on these floating cities that are having a severe impact on the environment."

 

The article Environmentally friendly cruise ships an oxymoron? by Beth Spracklin summarises the issues plus another Are cruise ships the real culprit? which points out that residential waste treatment facilities pose a greater problem.

 

The success of practically the entire cruise sector is based on the use of flags of convenience (FOCs) to circumvent home country labor laws, taxes and maritime regulations. Labor laws protecting the rights of workers are virtually non-existent in FOC countries (most commonly Panama, Liberia or the Bahamas), and where they exist, they are often easily altered. For example, when it realized that Panamanian law guaranteed one day off each week, the cruise lines successfully lobbied for an exemption.

 

Most shipboard employees work seven days a week for six months at a time, with never more than a few hours off. Typically these employees are quite rigidly stratified in three groups: officers, staff and crew. On most vessels there is a clear ethnic cast to this hierarchy: Norwegian or Italian officers, Western European and North American staff and Asian, Caribbean and East European crew.

 

Sexual harassment and rape are sufficiently common on cruiseships to have rated an article in the New York Times. (For further Information: Maritime Law)

 

On all ships cruising the Caribbean, nationals from this region are a small minority of shipboard employees, no more than 7% by one estimate, despite the proximity and high unemployment of the islands, a fact that remains surprisingly unexplored in the limited literature on cruise employment.

 

The economic impact cruise lines make to the Caribbean is matter of controversy (see summary in Patullo's chapter). She writes: "Conflicting statistics (from using different methodologies and multiplier effects), major leakages of spending, especially of duty-free goods, and a generally low contribution to the overall income generated by tourism in the Caribbean are themselves indicators of the economic limitations of the cruise industry. But even more fundamentally, who earns the money spent by the cruise industry? Who benefits from the government's expenditure on port and shopping facilities and such expenses as extra police security?" Moreover, "the extent of the interlocking of interests between cruise ships and local big business at the expense of local small business is at the heart of the debate about the cruise industry's economic contribution to the region."

 

Globalization detaches economic life from the constraints of geography - physical, cultural, political - and nowhere is this more evident than in Caribbean cruise tourism. The companies are entirely non-Caribbean. Their destinations are increasingly under their direct ownership and control; Caribbean cruises are taking on elements of 'cruises to nowhere'. The ships' laborforce is overwhelmingly non-Caribbean. What these ships do in the Caribbean Sea (including dumping) is outside the jurisdiction of Caribbean states. Meanwhile, the Caribbean Hotel Association complains helplessly about the unequal playing field it shares with the largely unregulated and untaxed cruiseships and worries about the stated ambitions of leaders to "empty out" its hotels. Indeed, the Caribbean Tourism Organization reports that the proportion of North American tourists who spend at least one night on land has declined from 61.8% in 1987 to 48.6% in 1998. Citing declining demand, American Airlines in 1998 forced Antigua, Grenada and St Lucia to pay it a subsidy of $1.5 million each in order to maintain daily nonstop jet service from Miami. With stopover passengers vastly outspending cruise visitors and therefore greatly preferred and sought after, smaller Caribbean countries find themselves having to subsidize their transport in order to get them.

 

Carnival Cruise Lines listed six aspects of the cruise 'product' which they said were superior to a land-based holiday: value for money; a 'trouble-free' environment; excellent food; the 'romance of the sea'; superior activities and entertainment; and 'an atmosphere of pampering service'. These factors are emphasized in cruise advertising, a constant presence on North American television and in the print media. If tens of thousands actively seek and wish to experience the above in 'pleasure prisons' then perhaps they should be encouraged to do so. By cruising instead of jetting off all round the world they are greatly reducing fuel consumption/emissions. It could be argued the trend towards larger vessels where the ship itself acts as a floating island is good for the environment as long as the most stringent onboard pollution and waste management controls are enforced. If these vessels do not dock at small islands then their potential impacts are contained.

 

The closest I came to identifying a working model where sustainable development and cruise ship tourism benefit from each other is in the Antarctic (incl. sub-Antarctic). The Arctic situation has evolved somewhat differently and policies to minimise/regulate the environmental impacts seem far less developed.

• Antarctic tourism: island tourism with a difference by Dr Thomas Bauer which was published by our Islander magazine
• One on Antarctica that appeared in People & the Planet by Dr Bernard Stonehouse
• Sustainable tourism in the Arctic and Antarctic by Dr Bernard Stonehouse et al which was published in the INSULA journal
• New tourist threat to European High Arctic by Alan Small which again was published in Islander
• Environmental impact assessment of possible tourism at Marion Island prepared by the South African Dept of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in response to tour operators seeking permission to visit the Prince Edward Islands Special Nature Reserve
• The Falkland Islands Cruise Ship Industry by Debbie Summers of Falklands Conservation

 

In his article, Dr Bauer maintains that "unless very drastic changes occur (for example bigger ships) tourism to the Antarctic will continue to be a sustainable activity that brings great joy to those fortunate to have the opportunity to visit." This is due in large measure to the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators which was founded in 1991. They have implemented guidelines or codes of conduct which appear to have been generally adhered to by their members.

 

Bauer's article states that "According to IAATO, the 1997/98 season, which lasted from Nov 97 to March 1998, saw 9,484 cruise passengers visit the Antarctic and the 1998/99 season recorded 10,027 passengers, the highest number ever in one season. The sixteen cruise ships and several yachts made 116 voyages." He has since told me there were nearly 15,000 passengers for the 1999/2000 season and the 2000/01 season figures should come in around the 13,000 mark. He also informed me that one recent development has been the emergence of some larger vessels like the Rotterdam but they fortunately don't land passengers or, if they do, land them at places they really can't do much damage.

 

Nevertheless, the trend in passenger numbers is upwards and the IAATO annual meeting held in June 2001 has a large number of items which shows they are actively addressing the potential problems and carrying out numerous research projects. Reference is also made to presentations on a South Georgia Island Future Tourism Development Plan and Development of Small Ship Tourism in the Falkland Islands. The latter refers to the study project undertaken by Falklands Conservation. Debbie Summers has since gone on to compile the Falklands Site Guide with Code of Practice for visitors.

 

Lindblad Expeditions is frequently quoted as a good example of working practice. Sven Olof Lindblad was among this year's winners of the UNEP Global 500 Award. Since 1979 his company have been providing small ship adventure cruises to destinations around the world and now caters for up to 12,000 passengers annually. His ships, when not ferrying tourists to exotic locations like Antarctica or the Galapagos Islands, are frequently deployed as floating conference centres bringing together environmentalists and policymakers to broker conservation agreements. The establishment of protected areas in the Bay Islands in the north coast of Honduras and in Mexico's Gulf of California was the result of one such meeting

 

Tours to the Galapagos Islands account for more than 20% of Lindblad's overall business. The company conducts 5% of all tourist trade to the islands. Since 1997 the company has experienced a 54% increase in the number of guests travelling to the Galapagos. Through the creation of the Galapagos Conservation Fund, Lindblad has pioneered an approach that has raised more than US$500,000 since 1997, an average of US$4000 a week, in support of conservation projects in the Galapagos. Lindblad guests have contributed US$250,000 annually to the GCF. By comparison, the annual operating budget after salaries of the Galapagos National Park is approximately US$600,000. Lindblad has also set up a Travellers's Conservation Association, under the US Tour Operators Association, involving many companies which had previously had little involvement in ecotourism and conservation issues.

 

A consistent point made is the lack of research and studies into the cruise ship industry. However, there would appear to be 20-30 academics around the world who specialise in this field. They cover different regions and bringing them all together to compare/share their findings and identify future priorities should be worthwhile if the LF decide to host a workshop. There is evidence that some are beginning to work on inter-regional projects and have a desire to form their own mailing list, discussion forum, create a website, etc.

 

It strikes me a film or video examining the whole cruise phenomenon and its various impacts would be one of the best ways to highlight and graphically illustrate the contentious issues. The Television Trust for the Environment might well be interested and the person to contact is Zoe Stephenson. Bluewater's cruise ship campaign was featured in and contributed extensively to an in-depth tv documentary on cruise ship pollution hosted by the former President of the Sierra Club. This special episode of The Thin Green Line aired in late October 2000. To view clips or order a copy of the video visit the Bluewater website.

 

The economic impacts (costs and benefits) of the cruise ship tourism industry should be investigated and documented in a more consistent manner. In 1994 the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association published a report carried out by accountants Price Waterhouse. This stated the average expenditure per person per cruise was estimated at US$539, which worked out at an average of US$154 per person per port. These figures were widely criticised. Interestingly, the ICCL Guide to Cruising makes reference to a recent Business Research and Economic Forecasting study conducted for the FCCA which found the typical cruise passenger spends almost US$90 at each port visited.

Falklands Conservation has expressed serious concerns about a Conservation Levy that was introduced by the Falkland Islands Government in 1999 under their Cruise Ship Ordinance. It is payable by all fare-paying passengers to the islands on vessels with more than 100 people on board. The charge is £10 per head and a total of £207,060 was collected last season. This season all vessels will be subject to the Conservation Levy which will increase the anticipated income to FIG by a further £10,000. This visitor tax is a misnomer because the funds raised are in fact not applied to conservation expenditure. Falklands Conservation feel that this additional levy money should be applied to expanding the conservation effort in the islands in areas such as increasing resources within the one man Environment Planning Dept, development of a National Biodiversity Action Plan and measures to protect the environment from visitor impact. Passengers and cruise ship companies are currently being misled into believing that such funds are being spent on conservation initiatives, and therefore feel no need to support these further (eg by donations/support to Falklands Conservation) and conservation work in the islands is being deprived of additional funding support. Other UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean like the Turks and Caicos Islands which is threatened by a proposed huge cruise-liner port at the Ramsar site on East Caicos and the Cayman Islands where money from an Environment Protection Fund was transferred by Government to recurrent and statutory expenditure, indicates a strong need to address the issue of how cruise ship visitor taxes should be used to establish dedicated environmental funds for the UKOTs' in particular and SIDS in general.

 

An investigation into why the different Arctic countries and the tour operators operating in this region have not formed a similar association to IAATO would be instructive especially as the number of expedition cruises to Nunavut, Greenland, Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land are increasing.

 

The success of the Bluewater Network cruise ship campaigns in Alaska and California might indicate that they could be widened to Canada in the first instance and then the Caribbean region where the North American market dominates and the environmental impacts are more acute.

 

Ted Manning suggested it might be possible to mount a study of risks associated with the cruise ship industry using the WTO indicators of sustainability approach for tourism. He is the leader of this program and would welcome any approach.

 

Prof. David Simmons is very interested researching into the energy/day, fuel/passenger kilometer type of figures. He has a suspicion that the pax/km energy will be much less than air travel and this may be an important consideration in the Pacific when faced with increasing concerns over climate change.

 

Robert Wood states the study of cruise tourism represents a new opportunity, both for the understanding of tourism and its increasingly broad ramifications, and for the understanding of globalization in all its global/local complexities. Cruiseship crews are probably the most globally diverse yet physically compact labourforces anywhere. They constitute a virtual laboratory for studying what a truly global force might look like, and how global companies are responding to the challenge of both recruiting and managing such diverse aggregations of workers. They also represent a way of seeing how emergent global labor markets forge new connections and articulate with local communities and economies.

 

 

 

 

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