"Giant Parasite... 'Don't Come to Our Neighborhood' Cruise Ship Boycott by Tourist Cities"

Inconvenience to Residents and Environmental Pollution Issues
Entry Restrictions Implemented in the US, Europe, and Other Regions

In various parts of the world, including the United States and Europe, more places are restricting the entry of large cruise ships due to residents' inconvenience and environmental pollution.

[Image source=Pixabay]

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 3rd (local time), Bar Harbor on Desert Island in Maine, northeastern United States, held a residents' referendum last November that passed, limiting the number of cruise passengers allowed to disembark at the port to 1,000 per day.

Bar Harbor, which serves as the gateway to Acadia National Park, has a population of about 5,200, but several cruise ships accommodating around 4,000 people arrive daily.

As more than several times the local population of tourists visit, residents have experienced inconvenience in their daily lives. A representative example is the difficulty in commuting within the downtown area.

In a 2021 survey commissioned by Bar Harbor, more than half of the respondents answered that "cruise tourism has negatively affected their quality of life."

Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, USA, also began efforts in 2019 to restrict cruise ship entries and reached an agreement with the cruise industry from the following year to limit the number of large vessels carrying more than 950 passengers to five per day. Juneau, with a population of 32,000, sometimes sees 20,000 passengers disembark from cruise ships in a single day.

Following the United States, Europe is also restricting cruise ship entries due to concerns about environmental pollution.

Recently, activists in Europe have been protesting against the influx of cruise ships in Spain, Italy, France, and Norway.

In particular, last year in Norway, a protester held a placard calling cruise tourists "parasites."

Local residents in Europe are also pointing out the damage that gases emitted by cruise ships cause to their communities.

In response, Amsterdam has decided to relocate its existing cruise terminal to another location to control the number of tourists and reduce urban pollution. However, the exact relocation date has not been determined.

In Spain, Barcelona, which also sees the highest number of cruise passengers in Europe, is taking measures such as closing one cruise terminal to reduce gas emissions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.