Musing on Cruising

Wretched bloody COVID has savaged a lot. In particular, the tourist industry; an industry that employs one in ten employed people across the world. Countless hotels sit barren through Summer high season, dust literally settled on the decorations installed for the grand openings uncelebrated in the Spring. Tour operators have handed out thousands of refunds, set to see only a small handful of clients travel this year, but only if there is a miracle. The unemployment, so far, in industries that feed off the tourist pound is at a scale of which was previously unimaginable.

 Amongst the devastation, some corners of the industry have been harder hit than others and perhaps taking the top of a podium that no one wants is cruise ships. As COVID left the boundaries of China and spread worldwide, on cruises horror stories played out as captains found themselves literally racing against the disease to ports – neither welcome. Soon enough, those on board were to discover they were unwelcome anywhere but the high seas, no land ahoy. Now they were just floating Petri dishes, and some a very long way from home. On vessels where COVID had crept on deck victims of the disease and victims of incredible bad luck were locked in their cabins for weeks. All were delivered food by staff in hazmat suits to prevent cases spreading like wildfire and a repeat of the horror story that was the Diamond Princess where over 300 cases on board resulted in 14 deaths. Needless to say, the open bar, casino and ten food outlets remained closed as the ship slowly chuffed and puffed back to home soil.

 Cruise ships are and always will be an accessible means for people to travel vast parts of the world with ease, in comfort and reliability. Cruising can be an incredibly cheap means to travel, prices often unbelievable when you take into account the ground covered and bang for your buck of destinations you can brag about once you are on home soil. Organised fun is order of the day all day every day, whether you want to be on land or on sea ships boast endless experiences and boredom is a swearword. For some not delighted at the prospect of a strange new culture, grappling with a foreign language or fearful of exotic foods, a cruise offers the standardisation and reliability some crave, taking the ‘risk’ out of a foreign destination so far from home. Ten days through Europe with fourteen destinations ticked off your travel bucket list or a week travelling up Norway’s expansive coast so you can find your own favourite fjord, just watch out for the local politician who has taken to canvassing against the eye sores by posing naked in his garden as they pass.

Never underestimate the power of the cruise industry, you only need to flick to the advertising pages of a travel magazine or newspaper and see how much space this industry hogs. Or open your curtains in Oia, Santorini or Chora, Mykonos and give yourself an extra spoonful of sugar in your ice coffee for every cruise you see – you won’t sleep for weeks. In figures, in a ‘normal’ year 32 million guests will board a vessel and the industry will generate $150 billion, most of which stays on deck... the money returning to tax havens. In fact, the worlds three dominant cruise Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian operate out of Panama, Liberia and Bermuda respectively where tax is low and labour and environmental laws are sparse at best.

So the industry grows. More boats, bigger boats and better boats are thrust in the water, slice through the sea and usher guests in their thousands to litter the shore, feast on the landscape, run around a museum and be back on board in time for tea. Unlike the industry, the vista, the UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Old Town… does not grow, it bursts at the seams, buttons popping off trying to manage the unsustainable numbers of people flooding in for a few hours each day. So they must learn to manage and make the most. Stands selling magnet souvenirs (made thousands of miles away) and local restaurants serving frozen food (made hundreds of miles away) to stand a chance of benefiting from short allocated visiting and lunch hours. When you consider this, there is no argument that someone spending a couple of hours in situ can be as beneficial to the local economy and experience as someone spending three nights in a locally run hotel being pointed in the direction of the best locally run trattoria serving authentic local cuisine. There is absolutely none. Yet, there are enormous numbers of people living off destinations without actually ever setting foot in them. And millions of people boast visits to destinations where their experiences have been so controlled they have scarcely visited at all.

 Venice is perhaps the most loathsome of cruise ships and they have utmost reason to be. The city coined the term ‘Venetianisation’ – the hollowing out of a place because of tourism, an issue that got out of control thanks to cruises. Tourist vessels are literally dredging up the very foundations of the city, obscuring some of the world’s most famous views and littering the streets from candy wrappers sold on board. What they experience is more groomed than they can imagine. Arrows marking the easiest routes to St Mark’s Square actually steering them through the parts of town with the space for hordes of people. A promised local authentic lunch more likely a struck up deal where cruise owners receive a kick back from the owner for bringing fifty customers for pizza between 12 and 12:30. Even shops selling souvenirs will pay to be featured in publications on deck.  The locals have made no secret of their disdain for visitors whilst numbers have risen from 1 million to 30 million annually between 1950 and 2019 the number of people who call Venice home has dropped from 180,000 to 50,000. Local tourism experts put the carrying capacity of tourist numbers at 10 million before infrastructure and way of local life is damaged. The sad irony is, if it were not for tourisms intrigue in the city, no doubt it would have been redeveloped many years ago.

Venice’s irksome relationship with boats from afar goes way back. In fact, take the origin of the word ‘quarantine’, from the Italian ‘quarantina’ referring to the 40 days and nights ships waited outside Venice before entering the city. So, cruises being hot beds for disease and virus is not a new concept and neither is a boats nervous welcome with Venice. In times of coronavirus cruises were the first to be awarded the accolade of ‘super spreaders’ as they chuffed and puffed around the oceans of the world, pulling into ports for their allocated 24 hours interaction with an environment. Critiques have long been warning of the health risks of squeezing enormous groups of people into small spaces for long periods of time and numerous outbreaks of various contagious diseases on board cruise liners have proved their point time and time again. 

But with every cloud… As the tourism industry shudders through a long lasting earthquake, those able to stand it are taking stock. No tourist experience or approach is perfect. The aviation industry pours pollution into the sky and we are all susceptible to purchasing some plastic tat or accidentally ordering a pizza only to discover it had come from a freezer. Deciphering whether a hotel really is locally owned and run is getting harder and harder and where Air B’n’B offers incredible affordability to destinations, it is also frustratingly far from perfect. For everyone, COVID has been a valuable opportunity to learn, improve and implement all number of things and unshockingly, sustainability has taken the forefront. Of all corners of the travel industry in the ‘new normal’, the cruise industry is going to have to work the hardest, to prove they have learnt anything.