Will cruises restart like before? 3 perspectives from AIVP’s network

Opinion article coordinated by Francesca Morucci, Head of Public Relations Office, Port Authority of the North Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy) and José M. P. Sanchez, International projects manager, AIVP, with contributions from Laurence Bouchardie, Head of the Marketing Department - Bordeaux Cruise manager, Port of Bordeaux Atlantique (France) and from Jamil Ouazzani, Director of Marketing and Strategical intelligence, Management company of the Port of Tangier City (Morocco). Bordeaux (France), Ports of the North Tyrrhenian Sea (Italy), and Tangier (Morocco): ports and cities in three countries faced with the resumption of cruise activity Health has been without discussion the major topic of the year 2020. Additionally, about one month ago the terrible incident in Beirut raised once again concerns about the compatibility of port and urban activities, and the health and quality life of citizens living in proximity of active ports. This general framework confirms the choice of AIVP to include in the AIVP Agenda 2030 one additional goal, number 9, dedicated to the health and quality of life of port city citizens. At the time when “we were happy and did not know it”, as the saying goes, we perhaps oversimplified the main concerns included in Goal 9 of the Agenda. The subgoals we considered, focus mostly on the environmental externalities of port activities in urban settings. We explicitly emphasized environmental monitoring and transparency, the quality of the water, green facilities, the impact of cruises and the need to prioritize clean ships and slow steaming. Nevertheless, these are crucial aspects for the port-city relationship and need a more serious debate post-COVID so we can learn from experts and each other at the same time, about the best solutions for different port cities. For that reason, we decided to dedicate the first month of our autumn programme to Goal 9 of the AIVP Agenda 2030. Health and Life Quality : a top-priority for AIVP since 2018 In June 2020 we hosted the Port City Talks, a series of three webinars to discuss crucial topics for AIVP members, ports and cities. One of them, focused on cruises in port cities, gathering the expertise from actors directly involved in the sector, coming from Chile, France, Italy, and Morocco. In this session, the speakers introduced interesting initiatives that could inspire port city actors in other regions. Additionally, they came back to the fact that the topic of cruises and port cities is linked to far higher complex environmental issues, such as GHG emissions and socio-economic phenomena such as mass-tourism. Since June, this unusual summer period in the northern hemisphere has severely disrupted the traditional high season for tourism, including cruises, in many regions. AIVP's first webinar on Cruises which took place on June 18, and to which this article's authors have taken part. As we mentioned a few months ago during the webinar dedicated to cruises traffic, one of the few positive aspects of the forced stop to many economic activities is the opportunity to reflect on the way we were acting. After some months, we want to share some reflections on the situation of cruises in port cities and the potential way forward. The point of departure is not “do we want or do we not want” cruises but in which way cruises could change in order to cope with this challenge, to collaborate with the cities, to promote a more economic and environment respectful tourism. The key idea that emerges is that we need to make cruises overall more sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. However, it seems the message has not yet reached many of the relevant stakeholders with decision making capacity in the industry and further debate is needed. Italy, Morocco, France: to each country, its solution - AIVP's analysis In this article, we will comment the return of cruises and the opportunity it provides to rethink the sector and make it more sustainable. We will observe the situation in three contexts: Bordeaux, the ports of the North Tyrrhenian Network (Livorno, Piombino and Portoferraio) and Tangier. We will try to answer to the questions here presented, with examples from these three port regions and what issues remain demanding further cooperation and discussion. Cruise-city-territory relations before the pandemic? Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth of cruise traffic was already a highly controversial issue, particularly in certain European port cities where local stakeholders have now started to criticise the economic, environmental and social impacts. "Old" and "new" worlds of mass tourism The arrival of cruise ships in Livorno, in almost direct contact with the old town. There is increasing debate about the facilities being built to accommodate cruise vessels and passengers, while concerns over the environmental externalities are merely exacerbated by the fact that the economic benefits for the city or the local area are often unclear. Meanwhile, the different procedures that surround cruise activity are often seen as excessive, as exemplified by the safety arrangements required to accommodate mega-ships, which require a complex logistics chain that is not always within the reach of local communities. On the one hand, there are the representatives of the “old world” of cruises, especially in Europe, who are beginning to feel the strain under the sheer weight of disadvantages brought by the cruise business - which often dumps several millions tourists a year onto their docks, and then onto their cities. On the other hand, there are the port cities of the “new world”, particularly in tropical regions, which are home to many islands for whom growth in cruise activity is still viewed as an economic engine that creates jobs. For them, the drawbacks still seem manageable, though they are not bringing scale economies. The challenges of mass tourism : examples from Venice, Barcelona or Lisbon The environmental and societal externalities, which are becoming increasingly clear in all parts of the world, and also the doubts surrounding the economic benefits, are now coming under the public spotlight, and have drawn comments on several occasions by a variety of different organisations. Environmentalist groups, such as NABU or Transport and Environment, periodically publish reports pointing to this industry for the pollution caused by its massive ships, both on-shore and in open-seas. However we have also witnessed in recent years that major players in the sector are implementing new technologies to reduce this impact by investing on new ships, responding to new regulation and progressively benefiting from On-shore Power Supplies (OPS) with sustainable sources. It is crucial that the efforts to diminish environmental externalities persist in the post-COVID recovery, despite the foreseen economic crisis. In social terms, cruises have become the symbol of mass tourism, even though they are not the single cause. Comparing figures of visitors to major cities hosting cruise ports, we can easily notice that the majority of tourists arrive through the airport. However, the very extractive nature of cruise tourism and its type of visits, based mostly on large groups, focalised the impact on urban areas, which are already sensitive. Local groups are becoming increasingly organised to protest the tourism industry, including cruises. We could see protests in the local newspapers in some historic cruise destinations such as Venice or Barcelona, or in raising destinations like Lisbon. “All included” packages, a trap which favours oversized mega-ships? Economically, there is also an increasing discussion regarding the advantages of cruises in the hosting cities. While for home ports the gains are associated to the expenditure of tourists in flights and hotels in the previous or following nights to departure or arrival, for ports of call, there are more doubts. In addition, with all-inclusive packages being a core feature of cruise marketing, cruise ships themselves are becoming tourist destinations in their own right. The main economic drivers of cruise vessels are their capacity and the extra on-board facilities, especially in the area of entertainment. These generate additional income for the owners, but at the same time they eat into the passengers’ budget, leaving them less to spend in their destination. To ensure their on-board services remain profitable, these vast vessels also spend relatively little time in port cities, further reducing the potential for passengers to spend money on-shore. These short stopovers generate peaks in vehicle and pedestrian traffic, whereas the capacity of tourist attractions and venues is limited, resulting in a frustrating experience for many cruise passengers. Before the crisis : permanent extension of cruises Prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 crisis, port cities generally found themselves in one of two situations. Although social tensions around cruises gather much media attention, there are many other port cities competing to attract stopovers or become a homeport. This shows that while in some cases the negative externalities point towards social rejection of cruises, in others, in the same routes or countries, the positive outcomes are still desired and consider worth investing in infrastructure or marketing campaigns. Further on, in the same cities where citizen’s collectives protest against cruises, economic actors and public institutions defend the presence of cruises for their economic impact and the jobs associated to it. This duality is also visible in the approach towards the negative externalities. Livorno's port area. In those with highly developed cruise activity, there was (and is) a need for local stakeholders to coordinate their actions and involve the industry, in order to mitigate the negative impacts and regain a degree of equilibrium, even if that means restricting the numbers of ships and passengers. Meanwhile, port cities newer to the cruise market need to learn from past experience, and chart a way forward that enables them to structure their growth and tackle negative externalities. This situation is aggravated by the fact that ports, and especially privately-operated terminals, are at the mercy of cruise lines that can pile on pressure to cut prices, demand additional investments and services, and ultimately threaten to remove the port from their roster of destinations. The threat is a very real one, and could potentially lead to a collapse in volumes for certain ports, given the tendency of cruise lines to enter into alliances and agreements to share vessels. On the Tyrrhenian Sea, very watchful citizens One example of the situation described above can be found in the Ports of the North Tyrrhenian Sea. In Livorno, where cruise activity has been growing since the 2000s, local stakeholders are now increasingly faced with criticism from civil society, which is seeing more the negative externalities and less the economic benefits for the city and the local region. A gateway to the artistic towns and cities of Tuscany, Livorno is visited by cruise passengers but only to a limited extent, often as they return from official excursions organised by the cruise line. During stopovers, it is frequently the ship’s crew that visits the city and spends on goods and services locally, but despite its advantages this does not generate a sufficient impact for Livorno’s economy. Conversely, Piombino is a city that has not seen (or perhaps not yet?) any growth in this type of traffic, which local stakeholders are now eyeing with interest. After the pandemic, cruise activity could represent a major opportunity for minor ports which, often being in lesser-known locations, are better placed to promote sustainable tourism and therefore able to forge a greater degree of authenticity. A cruise ship arrives at Livorno under the Torre del Marzocco. Another relatively new polemic has been associated to the development of cruise terminals. These facilities are often a “must-have” infrastructure to negotiate with cruise lines. Even though the terminals can become junctions for port-city interactions, their location can cause some controversy. On one side, a cruise terminal close to the city centre can provide environmental advantages, since passengers could disembark near the main attractions without using other polluting transportation. On the other, having cruises in central locations means that the polluting exhaust fumes directly affect the populated areas. Additionally, a central location may motivate tourists to visit popular areas rather than exploring new options. The dilemma that many local and national governments were facing before the pandemic regarding tourism and particularly cruises related to a global phenomenon and the immense growth of urban tourism and international travel in recent years. In many cases, we could say that the most massified tourism destination are victims of their own success. In the years before the pandemic more drastic measures were taken in the most crowded port cities. One famous example is the case of Dubrovnik, where the port authority decided to cap the number of cruise ships and passengers allowed to dock and disembark. Another approach is increasing the so call “tourist tax”, in order to compensate the hidden costs of tourism. This has been the path cities like Amsterdam or Venice are taking. In the Dutch case, since 2019, cruise passengers making a port call must pay an additional 8€. This measure has already led to 40% less cruise calls in 2019, raising significant concerns among the cruise terminal operators. The city of Venice is following a similar path with a new tax…