As you get closer summer season and cruise ships have already begun to appear en masse in Greek waters, the voices of experts are growing stronger, who speak of a disproportionately high negative impact on the environment, infrastructure and destinations compared to the revenues they leave behind.

OUR cruise most experts still classify it as one of the tourism activities with the worst sustainability profile. If the average expense per foreign guest in the country now exceeds 700 euros, then on a cruise it remains at the level of 200 euros, according to Bank of Greece which show that for 2022 revenues are in the order of one billion from 4,381,876 passengers, based on Greek Ports Association cruise arrival data (WE). However, even if cruise revenues (which are significantly lower in Greece than other Mediterranean countries such as Italy and Spain, according to diaNEOSIS) were higher than for ordinary travelers, cruise ships and mass disembarkation of thousands of people are causing problems. visitors to low-throughput destinations do not legitimize the uncontrolled conduct of this activity.

Experts point out that the adverse effects of the cruise should be limited so that they do not put significant pressure on local communities. “Cruises, and cruise passengers in particular, are putting pressure on utility networks and destination service systems,” diaNEOSis said in a study. For example, an increase in cruising activity causes a strain on transport networks and vehicles with an increase in waste. The effects are significant, especially when the number of passengers disembarking at the same time at the destination is very high.

A typical example in Greece is Santorini, where on busy days, with the simultaneous arrival of cruise ships, about 10,000 cruise passengers land on the island, equivalent to 75% of the resident population, and at the same time the consequences for the tourists who are on the island. Tourists who pay many times more for lodging and entertainment while enduring the overcrowding and inconvenience of mass day trips by cruise ship passengers. In this regard, the question arises about the cannibalization of the tourism product itself. In addition, even after efforts to limit the daily number of passengers disembarking from these ships in Santorini, a look at this year’s schedule shows that, for example, on July 5, as on other days of this month, more than 9,000 passengers are expected, and even more so on August.

At the beginning of 2019, a year before the outbreak of the pandemic that temporarily put a stop to the rapid development of cruises in the Mediterranean, a report by the Transport Committee of the European Parliament (TRAN Committee) included Santorini and other Greek destinations in the list of priority destinations. a list of areas of increased risk from hypertourism, which speaks of a change in the nature and social fabric of the uncontrolled daily flow of tens of thousands of tourists. A study by the Department of Structural Policy and Cohesion Policy of the Directorate-General for Internal Policy, requested by the TRAN Committee of the European Parliament, also indicates that in Greece, in addition to Santorini, the Ionian and Peloponnesian Islands are among the 15 European regions of “high risk” from excessive tourism.

If the average expense per foreign guest in the country now exceeds 700 euros, then on a cruise it remains at the level of 200 euros.

But the problems do not end there: there are effects not only from a large number of passengers, but also from the cruise ships themselves. And they mostly deal with pollution issues. “The cruise ship uses its generators throughout its stay in the port in order to have enough electricity to operate in various areas and to serve passengers. The operation of electric machines creates air pollution in the port area,” diaNEOsis warned even before the pandemic in its special study. Added to these issues are issues such as liquid and solid waste management, the release of sulfur (collected by some ships equipped with scrubbers) into the sea and, of course, the overall load on the destination road network of hundreds of buses called to transport passengers from points arrival. Many lack the balance between economic benefits and economic consequences.

Another very important influence of cruise ships has to do with the “aesthetic re-landscape of the destination”, especially in areas of exceptional natural beauty. Indicative in this case is the example of Venice, where one of the reasons for the ban on large cruise ships in the central port of the city was the change in its character and landscape.

All of the above problems have certainly been identified in other countries and cities burdened with a cruise, such as Barcelona, ​​Dubrovnik, the Canary Islands, etc. However, unlike Greece, where a significant increase in the number of cruise ships arriving in the Aegean is expected this year and the Ionian Sea and there are few measures to control these flows, the above mentioned areas have put in place strict measures to control the number of cruise passengers but also the number of ships that approach them and in addition they have also introduced significant refundable fees , which are charged in favor of destinations.