After a year without cruise tourists, some ports are questioning if they want them to ever return [View all]

Cruises are still months away from resuming, but once they do, things will be very different. Those differences will be found beyond the full-service buffets and improved air sanitation onboard; in fact, many ports are questioning if they want to return to the pre-pandemic way things were.

As ships grow larger and cruising becomes more popular, cruise ports the world over have struggled with overtourism. Even prior to the pandemic, destinations like Venice, Barcelona and Boracay moved to lower the number of cruise passengers stopping at their ports.

The trend has rapidly spread since the pandemic all but shut down tourism in most places.

Speaking at an event announcing an expansion of the Aster Cayman medical city, Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin explained that the nation was trying to move beyond its reliance upon the cruise industry. “We’re trying to diversify the whole tourism industry. What I foresee, certainly if we [the People's Progressive Movement party] retain [control of] the government, is less focus on growing cruise tourism. I think we have a very clear signal from just about every source that the great numbers that we’ve had since the cruise industry began in earnest and have always been the objective.”

Read more: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2021/03/03/after-a-year-of-without-cruise-tourists-some-ports-are-questioning-if-they-want-them-to-ever-return