Caribbean & Central America - February 2024

The world’s largest – and brand new – passenger cruise ship, the ‘Icon of the Seas’ set out from Miami on 27 January for a seven-night maiden tour of the eastern Caribbean taking in St Thomas and St Kitts & Nevis. The launch celebrations included the presence of the now Miami-based Argentine footballer Lionel Messi. Despite the razzamatazz, opinions are divided over whether the ‘Icon’ and other big ships are a good or a bad thing for Caribbean tourism.

Everything about the ‘Icon’ is big. It is 1,200 feet (366 metres) long and displaces over 250,000 tonnes. It is five times the size of the Titanic. There are 20 decks. Passenger capacity is nearly 8,000 (with crew and entertainment staff that goes up to nearly 10,000). It has eight onboard “neighbourhoods” a waterfall, six water slides, and over 40 restaurants. Nick Rose, a vice-president at operating company Royal Caribbean Group has explained the company’s concept saying, “We live by one single philosophy, which is to deliver the best vacations responsibly”. The ship cost about US$2bn to build.

The trend to mega-ships will concern Caribbean tourism operators since per capita spending by cruise ship passengers tends to be significantly lower than spending by tourists who arrive by air and stay on land over various nights in local hotels. A 2005 study by the United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) found that what it calls land-based tourism accounts for 90% of Caribbean countries’ tourism earnings (which are equivalent to 14.8% of regional GDP). Tourists on cruise ships spend significantly less than those who stay overnight in hotels. The fear therefore is that an expanding market share for lower-spending cruise visitors will have an overall adverse effect on profitability.

There is also an intense debate over environmental impacts. The Icon of the Seas is powered by liquid natural gas (LNG) and according to the operating company this makes it 24% more efficient than the latest International Maritime Organisation (IMO) standard. Royal Caribbean says it continues to aim for net-zero emission ships by 2035. But Marcie Keever of lobby group Friends of the Earth says “the ships are getting bigger and bigger and that is the wrong direction for the cruise industry to be going”.

Carbon emissions

A 2022 study by the US-based multinational public policy think tank, International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), found that a passenger travelling on a 1,200 mile cruise ship tour would generate around 500kg of carbon emissions, comparted to only 235kg if he or she did the same trip by air. Another lobby group, Climate TRACE, has found that cruise ship emissions are already 6% higher than