Mayor wants to ban cruise ships from Bordeaux

[pontac]

https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2024/08/mayor-wants-to-ban-cruise-ships-from-bordeaux/com)

 

It doesn't make clear if this refers to all cruise ships or just ocean going ones.

[cbr663]

Yet another European city pushing back against cruise ships and cruise passengers and over tourism in general.  Amsterdam has announced it is gradually limiting ocean and river cruise ships until 2035 when all will be banned.

 

When we were on our Rhine river cruise in June every tour guide and the cruise director would remind us constantly of the need to be respectful during the tours and to remember that the town's residents were simply trying to get to work and live their lives.  It was easy to understand when you are in a tour group walking around these medieval towns and you are joined by multiple tour groups from other river cruise ships.  So many groups at times.

 

It's one of the reasons why I believe rafting is so common.  There are simply too many ships on the rivers.

Edited August 23 by cbr663

[AtlantaCruiser72]

For some reason I thought the Amsterdam ship ban pertained to ocean vessels only. Considering the vast number of itineraries that use Amsterdam as start/end points for river this would be a major disrupter to the industry.  Other than Frankfurt no other city the Rhine/Main have the airlift capacity to absorb the volume of river cruise passengers Amsterdam handle per year. Cologne could absorb some of the ship volume, but currently has no international long haul to the US, Gulf region or Asia so much like Basel would force connections over various European hubs.  I’m also not sure Cologne has the hotel capacity to absorb the passenger volume that forcing ships out of Amsterdam would create. 
 

back to Bordeaux - it is not a huge port for ocean vessels compared to many other cities, so this may not be that huge a deal if ocean related. If river related it takes the garonne/dordogne off the map essentially.  
 

Most of the bansI am seeing/hearing about are all ocean related. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, AtlantaCruiser72 said:

For some reason I thought the Amsterdam ship ban pertained to ocean vessels only. Considering the vast number of itineraries that use Amsterdam as start/end points for river this would be a major disrupter to the industry.  Other than Frankfurt no other city the Rhine/Main have the airlift capacity to absorb the volume of river cruise passengers Amsterdam handle per year.

The solution is actually easier than you are imagining.  Passengers can still fly in to Amsterdam, but the ships would dock a little further off – ocean ships in Rotterdam (less than an hour by train); river ships have several options, from with the outside-downtown location already used by some Viking ships to Nijmegen (a day stop on some river cruises out of Amsterdam).  None of this would require major itinerary changes, although it would reduce Amsterdam's tourism income from cruise passengers – to Rotterdam's and Nijmegen's benefit.

[notamermaid]

I did a bit of searching in French language and so far, the articles and the quotes of the mayor - in my limited French mind you - suggest to me that it is ocean cruising they mean. No word specific to river cruising or river cruise vessels was used. Apparently, this has been in the news for some months in the region, meaning it has been in the discussion and "on the city council's table" for some time.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

It could be either this or

this he’s complaining about.

 

[Squawkman]

10 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

The solution is actually easier than you are imagining.  Passengers can still fly in to Amsterdam, but the ships would dock a little further off – ocean ships in Rotterdam (less than an hour by train); river ships have several options, from with the outside-downtown location already used by some Viking ships to Nijmegen (a day stop on some river cruises out of Amsterdam).  None of this would require major itinerary changes, although it would reduce Amsterdam's tourism income from cruise passengers – to Rotterdam's and Nijmegen's benefit.

Last year on our Viking Tulips cruise, the disembarkation port was changed last minute from Amsterdam to Rotterdam. Viking provided busses for those who had plans to remain in Amsterdam on their own and bussed those who were flying home to the airport which is about the same ride as from Amsterdam.

[MyriamS]

Interesting. I don't think anyone is planning to ban cruise ships (https://www.bordeaux-gazette.com/les-paquebots-de-croisieres-bientot-eloignes-du-centre-de-bordeaux.html). Instead the mayor wishes to make cruise ships dock outside of the city centre (they could be connected to shore side electricity and pollute less) and reduce their numbers by about a third. The decision is far from unanimous though, as the quoted business representative thinks it will lose the city tourism revenue.