Impacts of Cruising Essay Example for Free

Impacts of Cruising Essay There are both positive and negative impacts to cruising on different countries. Some can have a great affect on the ship and the area where the ship docks, others can have a negative affect on the cruise area itself and the people who live in and around the ports of call. The first positive impact which I am going to talk about is there are more jobs created by having a port where a big cruise ship comes into. Jobs will be available: †¢ Servicing the port and ship †¢ Jobs in construction – up-dating port facilities, ship building and in the local area, for example building more shops and tourist attractions †¢ Increased jobs in and around the port The table to the left shows the amount of tourists that visits different cruise area’s around the world. As you can see from 1997 onwards cruising has increased in popularity greatly. This has created more jobs for people as more people are going on cruises. Some of the jobs which it has created are jobs working in the port, like checking people’s passports before they get on the ship, too putting people’s luggage on the cruise ships and also many more jobs in construction. It does not only create jobs in the port it will create jobs on the ship, as they will need people to help out on the ship, like they will need waiters, entertainers, cleaners. Another way you may get a job is as there are more people stopping at the port they will be going on different excursions and the cruise companies will need people who know the local area to help out by given guided tours and taking them too and from the port to the attraction. This is where jobs in transport come in. Cruise companies will want to work with coach companies to take people to and from the port to different attractions, as the cruise port becomes busier they will need more coaches, therefore bringing in more money for the coach company and creating more jobs for local people. As the port gets busier and more tourists come into the area, tourists will go into shops, bars, restaurants and pubs and will spend their money. This will bring the area in more income and will create more jobs for the local people because the places will become busier and they will need more staff to cope with the demand. However one problem with jobs is although there may be the demand for them, they will usually only be seasonal when the cruise liners dock into the port. So people will not have jobs for the whole year round so they will have to save their money, to live until they can get a job again. Another benefit with there being more jobs is the local people will have more disposable income and the town/place where the port is. This is called the multiplier affect by more people coming into the area, it will create more jobs, which will create more income, which will then get put back into the local area improving facilities for both tourists and the people who live there which will then attract more people to come back to the town as it is improving. Like I said above as more people come to the area it will bring in more income which will be put back into the local area to improve it for the people who live there. For example they may use it to improve the infrastructure and make it easier for tourists to get from A to B, this will then be good for the local people as they will have access to better transport. It may also create more courses like a travel and tourism course, and catering courses for local people so they can go and get a good job in the industry or working on the ship. So all around the improvements of the facilities will benefit everyone. As well as improving the local economy by creating more jobs and bringing in more income it will help for cultures to be more recognised and will create a greater awareness of different cultures. This is good because it allows for the people around the port to keep the cultures and for them to not become diluted, which can happen, the reason it can happen is because more and more people from different countries will come into the destination and will bring their culture and idea’s with them which may dilute traditional culture. But in another respect it will help the culture to stay the same as people will be buying traditional artefacts from their culture like pottery and food and much more which will help keep the culture strong. Unfortunately not all impacts are positive; there are several negative impacts as well. When the passengers on the cruise ship disembark and visit the local area, they may not go into the local area, they may be going straight off the cruise ship onto a coach and to a tourist attraction, although the tourist attraction and coach company will benefit from it, the local people in the town will not as the trade will not go to the town so they loose out on money. Another problem is tourists may be on an all inclusive cruise ship so may go around the town and spend a bit of money but are unlikely to buy any food or get anything to drink as it is all available to them on the ship where they can eat and drink as much as they want. This means the local economy will miss out. Most cruise ships either accept UDA or Euros which means that the locals lose money. Cruises tend to be seasonal, meaning that if there is bad weather they may not get off the ship at all, and in low season the local tow n will not make a lot of money, especially if they are reliant on tourism because they will not make a lot of money in low season, which could cause business to go bankrupt. This also ruins the local economy. Coral Reefs and Sea Life is being ruined by oil spillages coming from the cruise ships and the waste being dumped from them. Cruise ships are not allowed to dump any waste into the sea, however this does not happen, although there is a law against it cruise ships manage to avoid it, by not dumping waste within 3 miles of the shore then they dump all of their rubbish and waste there. When they do this they ruin sea life, they pollute the sea and kill wildlife. Ships also have an impact when they are docked, they are meant to declare all waste when they are in port and take it back with them. Many cruise ships are not doing this, as they are illegally dumping their waste, fuel and ballast into the sea. All of this leads to pollution and high costs for locals to clean up. As more people are going on cruises over crowding increases the traffic, and the car/taxi pollution is high. Over crowding in one area ruins the local attractions where people are walking all over the place. Water is also limited, of which the tourists use more than the locals. Too many visitors in one small economy can cause lots of noise and less of the local identity. The people in the local area may get offended by tourists walking around in inappropriate clothing. Tourists tend to take all of their personal belongings with them such as camera, phone, iPod, money and jewellery. This increases the amount of crime and theft because the locals are poor. They can thieve this and sell it on. There is also an increase of the sex trade and prostitution. Tourists also tend to buy gifts and souvenirs that they don’t really want such as catholic countries selling tacky Virgin Mary souvenirs to tourists to encourage their local religion. Impacts of Cruising in Alaska Cruise liners that cruise to Alaska cut the capacity by 17% in 2010 which cut it by about 140,000 passengers. The reason for this is because of the $46pp environmental tax that they have to pay, the reason why the have put this into place is to help cut down on pollution, and to help pay for the clean up for cruises. In 1984 before cruising became popular Juneau was a run down crumbling area which now is one of the main points of call. This gives cruise companies a lot of power as they can move to different docks or areas. 50% of the excursions are sold by the cruise company. These prices are negotiated with the locals. Visitors to Alaska spend over $1.5billion on their Alaska trip in 2007. Juneau Juneau is the 2nd largest port in Alaska, but like I mentioned before in 1984 was a run down crumbling area. This area has the usual port facilities such as baggage facilities, covered walk ways, and taxis. . They have cafes and museums near to the port. The impact from this is that it is brining a profit in to the local area which will help to improve it in the future. Juneau has 2 cruise ship terminals meaning that they can have more tourists there at one time which will help bring in more money to the area, to help improve the port, the facilities, the infrastructure and the attractions to attract more cruises in the future. It is a self sustain port, which has no public funding. It is a deep water port, which has direct access to the local town and facilitates. The port has high fees of $46pp, this means that lots of vessels aren’t going to Alaska, because they have to pay a lot of money to get their tourists into their, which puts them off. This will have an effect on Jun eau because they will be losing out on money because fewer cruises are coming into the area, which brings in less tourists, which means they lose out on money and will not have much to spend on improving the area. Environmental issues are a big issue in Alaska, especially because of cruising. Water resources that are in Juneau have to be shared with tourists as well as the locals, and the rate that tourists and ‘westernised’ people use water then it does not leave a lot left for the locals. Hot weather also causes a problem because tourists will drink a lot more water, and will use double to what the local people do. Bus drivers tend to leave the motor running for a long time so that the tourists have the air conditioned bus that they want, this has an impact on the area because all of the fumes from the buses will go into the air and will pollute it; so the air is not as fresh and clean as it should be. This can cause health problems to become worse like Asthma, which some locals may have, so it could worsen their condition. Deep water port constructions will mean that builders will have to disturb the economy and the marine life, meaning they will have to relocate all of the animals elsewhere, this can cause damage to habitats, and it may disturb other animals that come into the port regularly. All of the building will have an effect on the area because it will increase noise pollution and the area that should be peaceful will not be that peaceful. This also means loss of animal habitat and less scenery. This means the area will become a building sight until everything is finished. The increase of infrastructure may not benefit the locals as it may produce more traffic while building the roads, and will ruin the scenery and land, and some farmers may be moved from their land to another to make way for bigger roads. Princess Cruise Liners have reduced air pollution created by idling vessels in port. To do this they have modified their engines so they can be turned off while they are docked. This helps to reduce air pollution from the cruises, as the power is off and no fumes will be clogging up the air. While they are docked they are plugged into a nearby land-based hydro-electric power plant. The power from these power plants is transferred to the ships via specially designed cables. Juneau is the only port that does this, and it cost them $4.5million to do this. This is because the cruise line feels it’s worth the environmental investment and hopes to expand this because it will encourage more people to go their to help improve the local economy and also if it is successful here they may use it in other places. Lax State and Federal Laws allows cruise ships to dump untreated sewage from toilets once the ship is three miles from the shore. When they are three miles away from shore, they can dump sewage from toilets that as been treated by marine sanitation devices. Sewage from sinks and showers can be dumped without treatment. Although this may seem far away from the shore, if there is a fast current the waste can easily reach the shore, and ruin marine life and kill of animals which some people depend on for example fishermen. Local fishermen may suffer from all of this as some of the fish life will get killed off from all of the waste and chemicals being dumped into the sea. In June 2003 Oceanas Stop Cruise Pollution campaign set our to convince Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to improve its waste treatments. In May 2004 they then agreed to this and have installed advanced wastewater treatment technology on all of their ships. (http://na.oceana.org/en/our-work/stop-ocean-pollution/cruise-ship-pollution/overview) A lot of wastewater from toilets showers, laundry and cleaning contains lots of detergent, grease and chemicals which are dangerous to the marine life, and can kill a lot of marine life. A lot of these chemicals come from the hairdressers, photographers and everyday cleaning and medical facilities that are on board. A lot of the water also contains food particles from the washing up. Many cruise ships now have systems on board to help clean up gray water and black water. Things such as paint, solvents, light bulbs, batteries and out of date or unused medicines are thrown over board. Make realistic recommendations about how to maximise positive and m inimise negative impacts of cruising I think one of the positive things about cruising in Alaska is the jobs which it can create for local people. I think cruise companies could draw on the fact that they can offer them jobs and could highlight the different jobs which they could do. I think what cruise companies could do to create better jobs, like they could get local people in on the cruise in the evening to show people about their different culture, as well as creating more jobs, it will give tourists a better understanding of their culture and it may lead to them respecting it a bit more. Another thing which they could do is they could offer people on board a ‘cooking class’ where they get local chef’s to come in and promote their restaurants by showing people how to cook their traditional food. This will attract tourists to eat in local restaurants where they offer the local cuisine. They could also give vouchers for the restaurants to encourage people to eat there. This will help maximise the income for local businesses. I think another thing which they could do to offer local people jobs is they can hire them as tour guides, to give information on the history in the local area and different cultures, they can take them to the best places to eat and the little traditional shops so smaller businesses can benefit from this. This will look great on cruise ships if they do this because it will help to maximise the positive effects which cruising has on the local people. Environmental issues are a very negative impact of cruising, I think to make minimise the effects which cruising has on the area’s it visit’s is to highlight on the things which they have been doing to minimise these effects. One of the things which has worked well is what Princess Cruise’s have been doing as well as what the local area has been doing. Like I mentioned before in Juneau there is a land-based hydro-electric power plant, which the ships can ‘plug’ into to give themselves power. This is a great thing to do because the ships will not need to keep their engines on, so they will reduce the amount of pollution which goes into air. This is a great idea and it is working really well. I think what they could do is other cruise liners could team up with Alaska and they could equally invest into putting this facility into all of their ports. This will create great press for them as they will be doing it in all of their ports and it will look good on the cruise companies because it will show they care and want to do something about the environment to help to make cruising more sustainable. In June 2003 Oceanas Stop Cruise Pollution campaign set our to convince Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines to improve its waste treatments. In May 2004 they then agreed to this and have installed advanced wastewater treatment technology on all of their ships. I think this was a great thing to do because again it looks good on the cruise company showing that they do care about what they are putting back into the sea. I think that all cruise operators should try investing in this facility or something similar to help reduce the waste which is going back into the sea.