ABSTRACT
Cruise tourism has created a range of environmental problems at sea and in port. These include air pollution, sewage, gray water, hazardous waste, and solid waste in larger than life scales. This chapter details these problems and outlines international environmental protocol. Often, paying the fines for breaking environmental regulations has been more affordable than making the needed environmental upgrades and following procedure. Despite the cruise sector’s enormous investment in ships and supporting infrastructure, at least until fairly recently, efforts by the cruise lines to either reduce their own carbon footprint or to find ways to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change have been relatively modest and piecemeal. As impacts of climate change are becoming more evident, today the major cruise lines, as well as industry associations, all report that cruise corporations are investing a lot in new technologies and practices to ensure the sector’s sustainability. These technologies are detailed. The chapter concludes with recommendations for destinations to craft sustainability standards and mitigation/adaptation strategies for climate change that successfully integrate the cruise sector. Caribbean states would benefit from a coordinated region-wide policy that takes steps to increase cruise tourism’s economic benefits and reduce its environmental impacts.
