As mentioned previously, a cruise ship is a controlled, safe, pleasurable environment with a wide range of recreational facilities and activities. As a result one wonders why any one boarding a cruise liner would have any reason to disembark. This in turn would give rise to what Cohen so often refers to as the “environmental bubble” or “tourist bubble”. One may rightly or wrongly argue that the cruise passenger views people, places and cultures of the destinations visited by the cruise liner, through the protective walls of his or her own “environmental bubble”. The cruise liner is designed exclusively for tourists and those who serve them; where the passengers and crew may be looked upon as the actors and where the activities by passengers and crew are scripted, scheduled, and closely monitored.
One of the activities included on the itinerary of many cruise liners is a shore visit to a port, during the trip there may be up to five port stops or more and the passengers from the ship typically have a choice to join an organized sightseeing bus tour to more distant locations or to explore the town on their own. Generally speaking, however, the time spent ashore is minimal, leaving the visitor little time to move around and explore the cultures of the society in question. It is obvious, therefore, that tourist bubbles raise questions about the authenticity of the experience. Whilst in reality cruise passengers on a day visit to a port have the opportunity to venture beyond the cruise ship tourist bubble, into the “real” world, one cannot but help asking whether they do in fact have enough time to venture out further then the port peripheries? And if not, does the port also offer the staged authenticity as the cruise liner, that is to say does the port cater for what the visitor expects to experience in that particular destination?
Furthermore, considering little time is given to explore the destination, does the visitor have enough time to take a peak into the shops of the locality visited? Moreover, if not enough time is available would the visitor rather stopover at the most renown site of that destination? And does visiting that renowned site always come at a cost? Therefore, in reality, do cruise visitors have a substantial economic impact on the destination? In truth tourist expenditure has often shown to be lower than what had been estimated and if one includes economic leakage and social and environmental costs, the economic benefits from cruise liners may prove to be extremely modest.
According to the Valletta Cruise Terminal Development Brief (Maltese Planning Authority, 1998) which sets out the Government’s objectives for such development explains that the essential rationale for the scheme is the opportunity – for both the area, and Malta more generally – to benefit from the expansion of the cruise market and the rise in demand for cruise passenger trips. All major cruise lines now offer a service to one of Malta’s ports, and the number of cruise liners visiting Malta has increased in line with traffic to the Mediterranean area as a whole, which is the fastest expanding area for cruises after the Caribbean. Indeed, Cunard’s QE2 visited Malta in 1998, and a total of 248 cruise calls took 193,000 visitors through the port in 1999, with an increasing number of deluxe-class vessels.
In 2001, over 300 cruise liners entered Malta’s Grand Harbour, and spending by cruise liner passengers in Malta as a whole was estimated in 2002 at around MTL 7 million per annum. It is expected that such spending will increase as a result of new retail uses in the immediate vicinity of the Valletta Waterfront.
The serious environmental impacts of cruise liners also feature as a cause for concern. With the birth of huge new cruise liners carrying thousands of passengers, it comes as no surprise that pollution, especially marine pollution, is on the increase as these cruise liners discharge gallons of sewage, oily water, chemicals and waste into the sea. As cruise liners develop so do the services they offer such as showers, sinks, laundry facilities, dish washers all extremely causal pollutants which lead to the dumping of enormously large amounts of grey water into the seas each day.
Despite this harsh reality, cruise holidays remain the fastest-expanding sector in the leisure market. As a result, rigorous environmental standards need to be drawn up and proper enforcement of such standards need to be ensured if the industry wishes to continue to flourish. We can no longer enjoy the beauty of a floating dream holiday at the expense of our environment for society, the economy and the environment are all intertwined and the destruction of one may, sooner rather then later, create a disastrous ripple effect which will undoubtedly leave the tourism industry crippled.
