Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren vogelbom here. It seems an unlikely move,
Speaker 1: especially after an economically devastating pandemic, but ports cities around
Speaker 1: the globe are snatching back their welcome mats, saying over
Speaker 1: tourism from cruise ships is more harmful than beneficial to
Speaker 1: their towns, and many citizens and small businesses agree. Residents
Speaker 1: of Key West, Florida, voted in November to ban the
Speaker 1: largest cruise ships from their port, plus limit the number
Speaker 1: of passengers who can disembark daily to one five hundred,
Speaker 1: a number less than half that of early Many say
Speaker 1: the throngs of cruise ship tourists are causing low brow
Speaker 1: souvenir shops to proliferate in the city's historic downtown, while
Speaker 1: the massive ships wreak havoc offshore on fragile coral reefs
Speaker 1: and game fish. In the year that cruise ships have
Speaker 1: been grounded because of the COVID nineteen pandemic, locals say
Speaker 1: the offshore waters have been cleaner, and some small business
Speaker 1: owners say they aren't benefiting from the ships either, as
Speaker 1: passengers typically aren't lingering long enough to patronize their restaurants
Speaker 1: in or boutiques. On the Spanish island of Majorca, more
Speaker 1: than twelve thousand people signed a petition to similarly limit
Speaker 1: the number of cruise ships and passengers stopping in its
Speaker 1: port of Palma, noting Palma is the second most polluted
Speaker 1: ports city in Europe according to Transport and Environment, a
Speaker 1: sustainable transport group. The petition also says that the throngs
Speaker 1: of passengers that swarm through Palma's streets a creed a
Speaker 1: theme park atmosphere that's causing residents to flee and over
Speaker 1: In Venice, the Italian city famed for its canals, banned
Speaker 1: large crews and container ships from the Venice Lagoon in
Speaker 1: early in part because the ships pollute the environment and
Speaker 1: a road the city's historic foundations. The UNESCO World Heritage
Speaker 1: Committee applauded the move, which it had been pushing for since.
Speaker 1: Yet not everyone agrees the cruise ships should sail away,
Speaker 1: for cruising is big business. Some thirty million people boarded
Speaker 1: cruise ships in twenty nineteen, according to the one State
Speaker 1: of the Cruise Industry report prepared by the Cruise Lines
Speaker 1: International Association, which is the world's largest Cruise Industry Trade
Speaker 1: Association that was up from seventeen point eight million in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, a sixty eight percent increase over just
Speaker 1: ten years. More impressively, these thirty million cruisers powered an
Speaker 1: industry that employed one point two million people worldwide, while
Speaker 1: pumping more than a hundred and fifty four billion dollars
Speaker 1: into the global economy. And despite the COVID nineteen pandemic
Speaker 1: that initially proliferated in cruise ships, the report says vacationers
Speaker 1: aren't worried about heading back out on the seas. Percent
Speaker 1: of regular cruisers report that they're likely to go on
Speaker 1: another one within the next few years, while an impressive
Speaker 1: fifty eight percent of international vacationers who have never cruised
Speaker 1: before are likely to do so, according to the report.
Speaker 1: With so much business at stake, the Florida legislature pushed
Speaker 1: back against Key West's cruise ship ban. In April one,
Speaker 1: the legislature passed a transportation bill that included an amendment
Speaker 1: taking away the port city's right to restrict cruise ship operations.
Speaker 1: Backers argued that restricting cruise ships will eliminate jobs and
Speaker 1: millions of dollars, and cruise related taxes for both Key
Speaker 1: West and other regions of the state that also benefit
Speaker 1: from the ships. The bill now goes to Governor Ron
Speaker 1: De Santis for approval. In Southeast Alaska, where cruising is
Speaker 1: a huge part of the economy, the absence of cruise
Speaker 1: tourists during the pandemic shutdown resulted in a two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty million dollar hit to catch a can Alone,
Speaker 1: a tiny port city with a population of just eight thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred and in Galveston, Texas, one of North America's
Speaker 1: busiest home ports, at the only cruise port in the state.
Speaker 1: COVID related losses were estimated at twenty three thousand jobs
Speaker 1: and one point two billion dollars in direct spending. For
Speaker 1: the article, this episode is based on how Stuff Works,
Speaker 1: spoke with Heidi Allison, a travel consultant who thinks that
Speaker 1: ultimately it's this kind of big money that will limit
Speaker 1: the number of ports slamming shut their doors, especially after
Speaker 1: the economic losses caused by COVID nineteen. She said, there
Speaker 1: are so many ports of call, people in small businesses
Speaker 1: that would love to have the cruise business. I'll bet
Speaker 1: everyone will be happy to welcome back any kind of
Speaker 1: business they can get. Allison also notes that the cruise
Speaker 1: industry is working diligently to create balanced, sustainable tourism, but
Speaker 1: it's not a quick fix. She said. The problem is
Speaker 1: you have these big cruise ships that, like cars, weren't
Speaker 1: built in the beginning to protect the environment. It takes
Speaker 1: years and years to adapt and change, but change is
Speaker 1: in the works. The Cruise Lines International Association's report says
Speaker 1: the industry has in did at twenty three point five
Speaker 1: billion dollars in ships with new technologies, advanced wastewater treatment
Speaker 1: systems and cleaner fuels, plus is targeting a fort reduction
Speaker 1: in carbon emissions by twenty thirty compared to two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight. The industry is also working toward more shore
Speaker 1: side electricity capability so that ships can turn off their
Speaker 1: diesel engines when in port and tap into the city's
Speaker 1: electrical grid instead. As nice as all of this sounds,
Speaker 1: import cities and cruise critics say more is needed. The
Speaker 1: association is partnering with locales like do Brevnick, Croatia, for example,
Speaker 1: to better manage the arrival and departure of ships to
Speaker 1: reduce overcrowding. In this UNESCO World heritage site, and Barcelona
Speaker 1: is working hard to promote itself as a home port,
Speaker 1: but it's one of Europe's hardest hit cities when it
Speaker 1: comes to cruise, ship pollution and overcrowding. So Barcelona prefers
Speaker 1: to welcome passengers who will hang out in town for
Speaker 1: a few days rather than those who drop in just
Speaker 1: for an hour two. That's partly because passengers spend more
Speaker 1: money in home ports. The association's reports says that the
Speaker 1: average passenger in twenty nineteen spent an average of a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars in port cities visited during a cruise, but
Speaker 1: a more substantial three hundred and eighty five dollars in
Speaker 1: home ports visited before boarding a ship. Passengers staying in
Speaker 1: a city for a few days are also less disruptive
Speaker 1: to the area compared with the hundreds that often spill
Speaker 1: out of a ship during a short port stop than
Speaker 1: raced the same few destinations. Despite some valid issues brought
Speaker 1: up by cruise critics, cruising is likely here to stay.
Speaker 1: Millions love to sail the seas, and many others are
Speaker 1: financially dependent on the industry. The key to creating harmony
Speaker 1: between ships and ports cities As with so much in life,
Speaker 1: is cooperation, care and respect. Today's episode is based on
Speaker 1: the article COVID nineteen or Not Many port Cities want
Speaker 1: to band cruise ships on how stuff works dot Com.
Speaker 1: Written by Melanie Red Zekie mc bannetts. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klein. For more
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