Cruise ships have long been thought of as big and brash, blithely sailing in and out of a destination. But a growing desire for sustainable tourism experiences could be driving serious change in the sector.
Much criticism has been hurled at the cruise giants over the years for their reputations as floating sweatshops, for passing through destinations without providing long-term benefits for the local economy and leaving a trail of environmental destruction in their wake.
But progress is being made, according to Dr. Joseph M. Cheer who lectures in international sustainable tourism management at Monash University.
For example, the recent launch of Carnival’s Fathom brand in the Caribbean centred on the idea of “impact travel”, incorporating a strong voluntourism component.
Image credit: Fathom
Closer to home, Carnival Australia contributed a combined $125,000 to Save the Children Australia’s Fiji relief efforts, following Cyclone Winston, with a range of initiatives such as its Born to Knit program enabling passengers to play a part.
Crystal Cruises also gives its passengers a chance to be philanthropic, offering voluntourism experiences through its free You Care, We Care program which have included redecorating an orphanage in Fiji’s Lautoka.
The opening up of Papua New Guinea as a cruise destination has also sparked a wave of investment in infrastructure with far-reaching effects.
‘It would be silly to deny the economic impact of a large ship of 2,000 people – it can have big impact on a destination,” Cheer said.
Furthermore, large cruise lines are actively boosting their corporate social responsibility programs – for example, Royal Caribbean launched its Save the Waves program back in 1992, created an Ocean Fund and encourages volunteerism within its organisation.
Then, there’s Carnival Australia which highlighted environmental conservation as “vital” to its business.
“We therefore have a vested interest in protecting our world’s marine and atmospheric resources for present and future generations,” it says.
“By investing in new technologies that use energy more effectively and continuing to share best practices, we are defining pathways to create a greener and more sustainable planet.”
That’s all well and good, but Dr Cheer stressed that there is little transparency within the sector to enable a true picture.
“We certainly don’t know what the environmental impacts are – that’s kept very confidential,” he said.
And while he applauded cruise lines for their recent efforts, there’s certainly more that can be done, he continued.
“It’s the small things like taking their own food and drink, discouraging tourists from taking locally run micro-enterprises because they’re scared of the insurance implications,” he explained.
“The bottom line is, can the cruise tourism industry demonstrate greater CSR in the way it constructs itineraries and in the way its passengers visit ports of call?”
The force of change could, in fact, be coming from within the cruise sector itself, but from a distinctly different area – small ship cruising.
Think operators like Lindblad National Geographic, and, more recently, Intrepid.
Launched under its Peregrine Adventures brand just this week, the Intrepid Group’s new “carbon offset” adventure cruising range features ten itineraries in the same “immersive local style” of its 1,500 trips on land each year, according to the operator.
Image credit: Peregrine
“Peregrine’s new range of small ship adventures will visit small ports that the big ships can’t get to, allowing travellers to explore little-known towns and villages in some of the world’s hottest travel destinations,” an Intrepid spokesperson said.
Those destinations include Croatia, Cuba, Iceland, Portugal, Panama and the Greek Islands.
But beyond simply expanding its product range into a new and lucrative area, the company claims it is “really keen to grow interest in sustainable cruising overall”.
It’s good news for local communities.
“If we talk about small adventure expedition cruising, in terms of the impact at a local level, the impact is very different to large cruise liners,” Cheer explained.
“In theory, I would say the impact on the local people is much more favourable as compared to large cruise liners.”
Why? Because the smaller operations enable port communities to participate “more meaningfully” in tourism, allowing passengers to maintain a more intimate relationship with “people and place”.
Image credit: Peregrine
Such cruises cater perfectly to growing demand for authentic and responsible tourism experiences, which is in line with the overarching consumer trend for ethical products, be they clothes, food or whatever else. And the impact could spread into the mass cruise sector, just as ethical land-based touring has become increasingly mainstream.
“The industry is ripe for disruption and something like this could do it,” Cheer said.
“Small adventure cruises are, in many ways, the ideal model of how cruises can and should work.”
Then there’s Richard Branson’s imminent Virgin Voyages offering, slated for 2020, which Dr Cheer believes could also be a game-changer if it follows through on some of its promises.
Already confirmed is its partnership with Climeon, a world-renowned clean energy innovator.
The Climeon Ocean system will transform low-grade energy into clean electricity on all three of its ships. The resulting environmental impact will be an estimated 5,400 tons of carbon dioxide saving annually per ship – an amount that would take 180,000 trees 30 years to absorb.
What else the fledgling cruise line will bring to the table remains to be seen. Keep an eye on that horizon.
