Last year, Cruise Tourism Partners (a joint venture between AEC Group and The B Hive) undertook a major piece of research that explored the impacts of cruise tourism in Broome (Australia), San Antonio (Chile), Keelung (Chinese Taipei), Alotau (Papua New Guinea) and Callao (Peru).
Photo Credit: PNG Tourism Promotion Authority
These particular destinations were chosen because they represent a genuine cross-section in terms of size and style of destination.
Broome and Alotau are small, remote and self-contained economies with a greater reliance (and future dependence) on cruise tourism, while others - San Antonio, Keelung and Callao - are part of resilient, diversified urban economies.
The objective of the research was not only to explore the impact of cruise tourism on these communities, but also to understand the challenges these destinations face and see if there are opportunities for improvement.
Unsurprisingly, we found that the impacts of cruise tourism are both positive and negative.
Positive benefits such as income, employment and infrastructure development and improvements are unilaterally welcomed by host communities, while negative impacts such as congestion, risk to cultural and natural heritage, and potential for long-term damage to the environment were frequently cited as the cause of much local tension.
We found that smaller, less developed destinations are more likely to suffer than major port cities.
We also found that most of these problems could be mitigated with the correct planning and education in the destination.
The main thing we learnt was that communities need to learn how to access and work with cruise lines, as well as identify skills gaps in their micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that service the cruise industry. .
So what’s happening globally?
Around 30 million people went on a cruise last year.
On any given day, there are up to 314 ocean cruise ships in service around the globe, with a combined passenger berth capacity of 537,000.
Worldwide, there are 132 ocean cruise ships on order, representing a combined passenger berth capacity of 278,970. This represents a 42 per cent increase in the ocean fleet and 51.9 per cent increase in passenger berth capacity.
This growth indicates significant potential for existing and potential cruise tourism destinations to develop this market.
Big Opportunities
Product development: MSMEs that are willing to put the work into developing attractive tours, retail and hospitality offers will reap major rewards.
Expert cruise jobs in destinations: There is a big opportunity for destinations to appoint ‘destination champions’. These local experts will be trained to deliver cruise-related content, frameworks and knowledge about how to better work with the industry.
Incubator programs for women: Destinations that support female MSME entrepreneurs with building, starting and growing their cruise and tourism businesses will benefit enormously from the increased diversity of tours, retail and hospitality options on offer.
Big Challenges
Over tourism: At the extreme end, over tourism needs to be managed before it becomes a problem within the community.
Sustainability: Sustainable cruise tourism revolves around an equitable distribution of economic benefits, protection of the marine and terrestrial environment and preservation of the cultural and societal values of the destination.
Withdrawal from the destination: The most significant challenge is the risk that cruise ships are global mobile assets that can be deployed to other destinations at any time.
Destinations need to ensure they have regular calls and a longer-term commitment from cruise lines before investing in infrastructure.
Fee and tax hikes: Cruise lines are sensitive to increases in port fees and charges, head taxes or any type of tourist tax. For example, when Amsterdam introduced a new transit visitor tax of eight euros per head, several cruise lines cancel all deployments.
Most cruise lines plan two to three years in advance, so any significant cost changes need sufficient lead time for the cruise lines to plan and factor into their itinerary planning.
The full APEC Cruise Impact report will be released later this year. For more information about the project, click here.
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