European mayor hits out at ‘low-cost’ cruise customers polluting his city
European mayor hits out at ‘low-cost’ cruise customers polluting his city
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The mayor of Nice has called out "low-cost" cruise ship tourists docking in the city for leaving rubbish and not consuming anything from the local community. Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice in France, has criticised cruise passengers who visit the city but do "not consume anything" and "leave their rubbish behind them".
“I don’t want these floating hotels putting down their anchors in Nice,” said Mr Estrosi, The Times reports. “These cruises that pollute [and] that pour out their low-cost customers who do not consume anything and who leave their rubbish behind them, well I say these cruises don’t have a place here.”.
The mayor has announced that he plans to sign a bylaw that would ban ships more than 190 metres long with a capacity of more than 900 passengers from docking in Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer from next summer. The mayor claimed that this would lead to a 70 per cent drop in the number of passengers arriving on cruise ships, to the city on the French Riviera.
“At the moment, we have [ships] that are real floating towns with more than 5,000 passengers,” he explained. “These [ships] do not correspond in any way to the tourist model that we want to develop. We have prevented concrete from smothering Nice, we are not going to let overtourism smother it in turn.”.
On social media platform X, Mr Estrosi shared the impact of cruise ships visiting the city: "Overtourism and pollution generated by these floating cities are scourges that we want to combat in Nice. The truth is that these are activities that are not very profitable for our territory, that pollute a lot and threaten the health of the people of Nice and Villefranchois. Not to mention the consequences on biodiversity.".
