Guernsey Press

Increase in cruise passengers coming ashore this season

A SUCCESSFUL cruise season has seen passengers coming ashore in the island up by nearly 2,000 to date.

Published
Cruise liner passengers on Albert Pier, St Peter Port. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 25808351)

A total of 109,871 passengers have taken advantage of the island stopover, up from 107,891, between the beginning of the cruise season in March and 4 September.

An Economic Development spokesperson said it had been a good season so far.

‘We still have eight more scheduled calls to come and, of course, end-of-year passenger numbers will be reliant on good weather from now through to October.’

Passengers were mostly from the UK, US and Germany, with small amounts of other nationalities, including French.

However, the improved passenger numbers provoked a tweet from Environment & Infrastructure president Barry Brehaut sharing a link to an article on overtourism in Monday’s Guardian.

This said that cruise ship passengers caused increased commercialisation and loss of individuality in destinations.

The article focused on visitors to Dubrovnik in Croatia, which saw around three million visitors descend on the city, mostly from cruise ships. Critics said they were causing long-term damage and destroying its magic as bakeries and markets were turned into souvenir shops.

Huge amounts of fossil fuel are also said to be burnt, creating water, air and noise pollution, which in turn is affecting the marine ecosystem.

Deputy Brehaut referenced this when he tweeted: ‘Interesting in the Guernsey context, when will enough become too much. Cruise liner tourism is starting to shape the very fabric of towns, losing part of the charm that first attracted in the process.’

In Dubrovnik, the livelihoods of 80% of the locals are dependent on tourism and cruise passengers, so there are those who are reluctant to address the problems.

  • A cruise ship due to call in yesterday cancelled its visit. The Saga Sapphire, which carries 720 passengers, had been due in at 8am.

The next liner due to visit is the Dumont D’Urville, with up to 184 passengers, on Friday.