Sustainable Tourism and Future Development of Cruise Ship Operations, Essay Example

Current cruise tourism must make efforts to increase sustainability and focus on future development in order to minimize cruise ship pollution. This can be accomplished through the “philosophical framework that sustainability is not a perfect balance of social, environmental, and economic factors,” rather that local destination factors may favor one aspect over the other (Hritz & Cecil, 2008, p. 172).

In order to decrease cruise ship pollution, it is suggested that domestic and international targets should be implemented, such as fuel minimization and water consumption reduction, as well as reduction of on-shore disposal of oily sludge (Johnson, 2002, p. 266). It is also important to further industry, state and federal initiatives and insights in conservation, air pollution control and waste disposal (Copeland, 2007, pp. 22-25).

The future development of cruise tourism and sustainable practices must focus on domestic and international legal collaboration, especially in at-risk and sensitive environments such as Alaska, the Cayman Islands, Haiti and Dominica (Johnson, 2002, p. 267). Cruise tourism must also operate within the “natural capacities for the regeneration and future productivity of resources” (Johnson, 2002, p. 261). Johnson also suggests ship infrastructure, operation, and distribution impacts from travel should be researched and regulated accordingly (2002, p. 263).

References

Copeland, C. (2007). Cruise ship pollution: Background, laws and regulations, and key issues. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.

Hritz, N., & Cecil, A. K. (2008). Investigating the sustainability of cruise tourism: A case study of Key West. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 16(2), 168-181.

Johnson, D. (2002). Environmentally sustainable cruise tourism: a reality check. Marine Policy, 26(4), 261-270.