A blessing or a burden: Is the cruise industry responsible for overtourism?
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What challenges do cruise ships create for popular tourist destinations?
Picture this, you've spent months planning and saving to go on a dream trip abroad only to arrive to find that your destination is overrun by tour groups from a cruise ship docked in the local port. That is a familiar scenario for many tourists and locals who feel the rise in cruise travel is placing a serious burden on holiday destinations. Are the crowds good for the local economy or is the cruise industry leading to over-tourism? I'll be talking to Cathy Adams, travel news features editor of The Times and Sunday Times and Tenerife-based journalist Cliona O'Flynn. But first, Franco Gugic is a taxi driver in Dubrovnik. Morning, Franco. Good morning. How are you? Very well, thank you. Now, Dubrovnik, before it limited the number of cruise ships that could come in, it was being overrun with tourists.
What was it like in those days?
Well, it was, to be honest, quite hectic. So what happened is you would have six or seven cruise ships coming in at the same time. And for Dubrovnik, that's a city that's so little, the infrastructure of roads is actually not up to it. So the big buses that would come in and drive the people to the old city from the cruise port, it's actually a relatively short drive. But just the amount of buses that would get all the way to the old city would clog up the whole streets. Let's say proper traffic was unable to operate normally, you would get stuck in a jam that it would take you a few hours just to pass two or three kilometers going into the city. But the city itself was Horrible. I mean, you would get stuck in a huge horde of people going into the old city.
I mean, by foot, not in a car. So literally, you were just in a big crowd of people. You couldn't check out anything because you're just moving with the flow. If you want to go to a restaurant or anything, you're unable to because it was just overcrowded.
And I saw a figure that tourists were outnumbering locals at one stage by 27 to 1. It must have been impossible to live a normal life.
Yeah, that is correct. So whenever one of us locals had to go to the city, we would actually either leave it for the winter or we would do it in the off hour. So really early in the morning or really late in the afternoon. I mean, even now it's more tourists per capita, but not as much as in 2018 and 19. So living a normal life, especially for those in the old city, was in a way impossible. I mean, just getting out in the street was quite hectic.
And the argument for tourism, obviously, is that tourism brings in money and tourists spend money. But I mean, if things are that crowded, it's a bit difficult to even spend anything, is it?
That is correct. So actually when you look at the, let's say the numbers, you actually have more of a lost revenue rather than a big revenue because these guys from cruise reports, they would usually just pay the city tax and that's it. So there's no spending. All of the meals are actually done on board. They have their own tourist guides. They had the companies they were working with that were taking them to the old city from the cruise port. so basically most of the city itself was not profiting of those kinds of tourists it was more of a lost revenue because whenever we would recommend people to go into the old city of Dubrovnik let's say the non-cruise ship tourists what would happen is we would let them know don't go from i don't know 10 in the morning up until 3 4 p.m because it's just going to be
How did Dubrovnik manage the influx of tourists from cruise ships?
overcrowded and then instead of those guys going to the old city doing the walls or going to a restaurant or a cafe or museums they're actually staying at home or going to the beach and not spending any so unesco said the situation was so bad that dubrovnik's world heritage status could be removed so action was taken only two ships a day can come in now has that made much of a difference Quite a bit of a difference, to be honest. So now with this limit, well, the thing is Dubrovnik, the old city itself, is having the old foundations and everything, but they have the people counter on the gates.
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