Venice Port Authority Calls On Other European Ports to Join Cruise Line Oversight Plan

The Guardian reports that the city of Venice, Italy called on the ports of Barcelona, Amsterdam, Marseille, Dubrovnik, Zeebrugge, Hamburg, Palma and Málaga to clamp down on cruise ships calling on their ports. The call comes as many Venetians are protesting the ships, following a crash involving a cruise ship at the Venetian port earlier this year. That crash involved the 13-deck MSC Opera and left four people. 

The report says that Pino Musolino, chairman of the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority, is calling for the European ports to come together and require that cruise companies ensure that their ships are “compatible with our structures and the environment”.

“The cruise sector has been, and still is, a great source of income and a provider of jobs and innovations in our ports and our cities,” The Guardian quotes Musolino as saying. “[T]he growing size of vessels, their environmental impact on the areas surrounding the ports and the ‘burden’ that the increasing number of tourists are representing on the cities that are hosting our ports are creating a situation of conflict,” he added.