Mayor wages war against 'low cost' cruise ship tourists arriving in Nice
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The mayor has criticised cruise passengers who do ‘not consume anything’ and ‘leave their rubbish behind them’. A popular French tourist destination could see a ban on large cruise ships if its mayor gets his way, after he said he is fed up with “low-cost” tourists docking in the city.
The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, has launched a fight against large cruise ships in the French Riviera city that attracts tourists with its warm climate, elegant promenades and cultural interests such as its opera house and museums. “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 said he has plans to sign a bylaw banning ships more than 190m long and with a capacity of more than 900 passengers docking in Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer from next summer. Mr Estrosi claimed that this would lead to a 70 per cent drop in the number of passengers arriving on cruises to the city.
“At the moment, we have [ships] that are real floating towns with more than 5,000 passengers,” he said. “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.”.
