In Marseille, one of Europe's biggest cruise ports, more than 50,000 people have signed a petition against cruise ships.
Marseille is heavily dependent on cruise ships with the industry contributing about €350/$346 million a year to the local economy. However, with air and marine pollution worsening every day, residents have had enough.
In July, Mayor Benoît Payan launched an ‘anti-cruise’ petition to prevent the most polluting ships from stopping. More than 52,000 people have signed the petition to date, according to Euronews.
“The Mediterranean is slowly dying but the giant cruise ship lobbyists want to continue to defile it,” he tweeted last month.
“A ship docked for an hour in Marseille is the equivalent of 30,000 vehicles travelling at 30 km/h in Marseille, for one hour,” warns Damien Piga, a manager at Atmosud, an air quality observatory in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.
Marseille is the second largest city in France, and attracts around two million visitors per year. It is France's main port for cruise ships, with most docking roughly 5 miles (8 kilometres) north of the Vieux Port, the main centre of Marseille.
Marseille is not the only destination announcing pushing back on cruise ships. Venice, Amsterdam, Dublin, Santorini, Barcelona and others have started looking at strategies to tackle the dangers posed by massive vessels.
