Time to Rethink Cruise Liner Industry Here
The future of the cruise liner industry in Fiji will take some time to recover. According to the Economic Impact of Cruise Liner in Fiji October 2019, the total direct economic impact of cruise tourism in Fiji is estimated at approximately $44.2million. University of the South Pacific Scientific and Technical Advisor at the Micronesian Centre for Sustainable Transport Peter Nuttall said cruise liners had taken a big blow to their reputation internationally as virus incubators. “There were already large question marks over the sustainability of this industry in terms of the return to the Fiji economy and the impacts on public health and climate change emissions these ships produce,” Mr Nuttall said.
“The cruise industry isn’t going to restart anytime soon. Even when it does, the global recession means there will be reduced income for this luxury sector, and the restart will be slow.
“Fiji should use this space wisely to ask what type of cruise liner industry it wants to encourage in the future and what type of enabling and regulatory environments can it create to shape that future now.” Mr Nuttall said cruise ships burned large quantities of poor quality fuel and generate large amounts of airborne emissions. “Recent studies show that only a select few benefit from the cruise liners’ spending and that per person it’s actually very low, much lower than a traveller that books a local hotel and eats in local restaurants and buys in local shops,” he said.
“In Dravuni, the cruise liner passenger spends on average only $3 on handicrafts.
“And there is the cost to the environment. Think of all the communities downwind of the places cruise liners stop.
“Think of Tropical Cyclone
and and think of the contribution cruise liners make to global climate change.
“The answer seems rather straightforward. In the future, we want much cleaner, less polluting cruise ships and smaller numbers of high paying tourists that spend more time and money in local communities.
“Tourism will return to Fiji in time. But it should be Fiji that decides what the new normal will be.” On March 16, cruise ships were banned from berthing anywhere in Fiji.