The cruising industry is in high gear in late summer 2023, with cruise passenger volume up 106% from 2019 levels according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
Business is so good that a growing number of cities and port towns have had enough and are placing limits on the number of cruise ship tourists who come ashore. Some big tourist-trending cities like Barcelona and Amsterdam are even considering bans on the largest cruise ships looking to weigh anchor, according to The Wall Street Journal.
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Some traffic-heavy cities like Juneau, Alaska, and Bar Harbor, Me. are also debating and litigating proposed limits on cruise line visitors.
In 2024, Juneau is planning to cut cruise line visits to five large ships daily for vessels holding more than 950 passengers. Currently, the Alaskan city of 32,000 residents may see 20,000 tourists in peak season. Over 1.7 million cruise line tourists will debark to Juneau in 2023, city officials say.
“This agreement provides our community with the assurance we need to plan for the future,” Juneau Tourism Manager Alexandra Pierce noted in a press release. “It’s essential we preserve the things that make Juneau an incredible place to live and to visit.”
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Bar Harbor is taking similar measures. From mid-September to late October, which is peak leaf-viewing season, Bar Harbor hosts thousands of cruise tourists alone, according to CruiseMain, part of the Maine Office of Tourism.
Last year, Bar Harbor residents green-lit an initiative to limit cruise passengers to 1,000 per day. That initiative is currently tied up in court, but Maine officials say that agreements with cruise lines should curb local visits by 18%, The Journal reported.
In Europe, Barcelona is shuttering one of its cruise terminals to cut tourist traffic while Amsterdam is planning to relocate one of its cruise terminals away from the city center to relieve congestion.
Expect more of the same as a post-pandemic world opts to cruise again. This time, though, travelers may not be welcome with open arms in popular ports of call.
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