The mayor of Nice is looking to ban cruise ships over a certain size, as he criticises passengers for leaving rubbish in the city and not consuming anything from the local community
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.”
The mayors intentions to ban cruise ships over 900 passengers has sparked debate in Nice over the impact of a loss of tourism could have on the local area. Some environmentalists have supported the idea, including Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux, the local head of the Ecologists party who says that the mayor’s decision is an “immense and historic victory”, reports The Independent.
However, restaurants and shopkeepers in the local area worry that a ban could jeopardize their businesses. For example, staff at the Trastevere restaurant in Villefranche-sur-Mer told a local newspaper, Nice Matin, that its number of diners doubles when cruise ships arrive, adding that they “consume a lot”.
The mayor’s desire to ban certain cruise ships from docking in the city follows Venice’s ban on cruise ships six years ago. “Venice has regained its beauty and its landscape by having a mayor who definitively refuses cruises. We intend to go in this direction, too,” Mr Estrosi told local French press, Monaco Life reports.
Ibiza also introduced regulations in September, which allow no more than two cruise ships to dock at the same time and in Amsterdam, cruise ships were banned from docking in the city centre in 2023.
