Is the money from cruise lines irrigating the city equal to the pollution generated? Without it being asked exactly in these terms, this is the question to which the Marseille town hall, which has announced that it wants to launch a study on the economic benefits of these giants of the seas, wants an answer.
A desire displayed in Provence Friday, municipal council day by Laurent Lhardit. The tourism assistant expressed his doubts as to the runoff, from the multiple decks of liners, of nearly 375 million euros, according to a 2019 study by the Cruise Club, towards Marseille traders. “I don’t know where the local economic players find themselves. So I find it hard to believe in the El Dorado of the economic benefits of mass cruises. This model is no longer compatible with our city,” explains Laurent Lhardit.
626 large ship calls in 2023
A debate launched at just the right time: this weekend, nearly 30,000 tourists docked in the Grand maritime port of Marseille to discover the city between two blasts of the mistral. In its 2023 annual report, the port reported a 76% increase in cruise activity, with more than 2.5 million passengers welcomed (more than 4 million including ferries) in 626 stopovers, an increase of 8%. A little less than a quarter of these ships were powered by liquefied gas, a fuel that generates fewer fine particles.