You cruise, you lose... the soul of Dubrovnik
One of the beauties of the Croatian city of Dubrovnik is the Stradun. This elegant 300-metre long pedestrian street runs through the heart of the Old Town and although in existence since the 13th century, it was following the destruction from the 1667 earthquake that the Stradun took on its current appearance.
Anyone who has ever been to Dubrovnik will be familiar with it – its (largely) 17th century streetscape is stunning and, after dark, the cleverly lit thoroughfare takes on an eerily beautiful atmosphere.
Book-ended by two ancient fountains, you will, however, be lucky to catch a glimpse of them if you visit over the next few weeks. And as for the lovely limestone paving underfoot – you won’t get much of a look at that either. Why? Because it’s prime cruise-ship season, and Dubrovnik, like many cities around the world, is becoming overrun with these monstrous ships which appear on its skyline, drop anchor, and spew out thousands of people to tramp around the Old Town before returning to their ship to dine and sleep for the night.
So no, although the port authorities might well pocket some kuna from these cruise ships, the hotels and restaurants of Dubrovnik certainly don’t benefit from their arrival.
Last year some 529 cruise ships stopped off in Dubrovnik. That amounted to 799,916 passengers. Little wonder then that it takes 40 minutes to walk the Stradun at the height of the summer season and that, according to a recent report, only one bar there continues to be frequented by the locals.
I know that many people love nothing better than a holiday cruise. You only have to look at how the cruise market has exploded in popularity in recent years.
I’m not a fan. I don’t like the restrictive nature of the holiday, I hate the scale of many of the ships and, increasingly, I simply can’t ignore the negative impact on the places that they visit.
It’s one thing to be gobsmacked by 10 or 12 restaurants and bars, myriad swimmingpools, gymnasiums, running tracks and the like. It’s quite another, though, to witness the potential damage that such huge ships and their passengers unleash in their wake.
And all too often, the ‘if it’s Tuesday it must be Dubrovnik’ syndrome means that the essence of a particular place is simply lost on people.
According to one British newspaper report, comments overheard recently in Dubrovnik’s Old Town included the following gem: ‘What do you mean you don’t take euros? The whole of Italy takes euros.’
The Dubrovnik Tourist Board is at least trying to put in place some kind of cruise control, with cruise passenger numbers visiting the city now limited to 8,000 at any given time. The intention is admirable but actually policing it, I’d imagine, is a nightmare.
And it’s not just Dubrovnik that has these problems. I have often sat reading a book on the Zattere in Venice beside the Giudecca Canal, basking in the sunshine, only to find that, suddenly, the sun is gone - completely blocked out by one of the giant ships making its way to the port to dock. Nowadays, indeed, there’s a great deal of anger in Venice over the cruise ships and their undermining of the very foundations of this fragile city and, for the first time in my 20-odd years of visiting, there is abusive graffiti to that effect all over the city.
Barcelona too is afflicted with cruise-ship blight. This is the European city, after all, that, according to documentary maker Eduardo Chibas, receives the largest number of cruise ships in Europe and the Mediterranean.
These problems aren’t going away. We need to address the issue of cruise ships and find a resolution that works for everyone’s benefit.
In the meantime, however, the €100bn cruise industry sails on regardless. ros.dee@dmgmedia.ie