Cruise ships have doubled in size in just two decades and now have up to 40 restaurants and seven swimming pools on board, according to a new analysis that warns of their environmental impact.
The cruise business is the fastest growing sector of tourism and the number of ships has soared – from 21 in 1970 to 515 today.
If the current rate of growth continued, the largest ships in 2050 would be almost eight times the size of the Titanic and carry around 11,000 passengers, campaign group Transport and Environment (T&E) said today.
Inesa Ulichina, sustainable shipping officer at T&E, said: “Today’s ‘cruisezillas’ make the Titanic look like a small fishing boat. How much bigger can these giants get?”
While it is not certain that ships will grow that much, there are few technical reasons why this would not happen, other than, perhaps, the size of the ports.
Cruise ships of the future will make the Titanic look like a fishing boat, says T&E
In January this year, the largest cruise ship in the world, the gigantic Icon Of The Seas, set sail.
The enormous ship is five times larger than the Titanic and carries 40 restaurants, seven swimming pools and 7,600 passengers.
Tourists from the UK and Ireland love cruising, taking 2.3 million luxury cruise holidays last year, up from 1.7 million in 2022. The top destination is the Mediterranean.
However, this boom has “a significant environmental cost” in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and air and water pollution, T&E warned.
Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters
But the campaign group is not asking people to stop going on holiday.
Ulichina told Sky News that the group is “not advocating a cruise ban”, although people should be “aware” of the environmental impact.
Instead, cruise ships should “lead the adoption of green fuels for shipping” to help them move up and down in price, she said.
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Amid criticism of its pollution, around 38% of ships have already switched from heavy, very dirty fuel oil, traditionally used to power large ships, to liquefied natural gas, which is cleaner, but still a fossil fuel that contributes for climate change.
Emissions per passenger also fell. But the expanding industry means its global emissions are at least 20% higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Robots serve drinks at Symphony Of The Seas’ 362-meter-long bionic bar. Photo: Reuters
A Swarovski crystal staircase appears on the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship. Photo: AP
T&E says the industry should switch from fossil fuels to cleaner “e-fuels” – green hydrogen that can be manufactured using renewable energy and has no emissions.
The same solution is also being explored for planes, as they could not accommodate heavy batteries either.
Activists also want to end what they call exemptions for the luxury cruise industry from most fuel taxes, corporate taxes and consumer taxes that other modes of transportation charge.
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A €50 (£43) tax on a typical ticket could raise €1.6 billion (£1.38 billion) globally to pay for climate action around the world, campaigners add.
Sky News has contacted the US-based Cruise Lines International Association, the world’s largest cruise ship trade body, for comment.
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