Large cruise ships will be banned from docking in Nice this summer in a bid to block ‘low-cost clientele’ from holidaying in the glamorous French Riviera town.
The city’s mayor Christian Estrosi, a vocal critic of the cruise industry, said that ‘floating buildings’ will not be permitted to dock in the port or in neighbouring Villefranche-sur-Mer from July 1.
The order prohibits cruise ships carrying more than 900 passengers from putting them ashore for sight-seeing excursions of the Mediterranean port city.
Smaller ships, which generally offer much more luxurious cruises, will still be welcome. ‘Pleasure boating, yes, floating buildings, no,’ said Estrosi.
‘Cruise ships that pollute and unload low-cost tourists who consume little but leave their waste behind, have no place here,’ he said.
The ban means Nice will join popular destinations including Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Santorini which have either scaled back or banned cruise stopovers.
The bans are aimed at tackling overtourism and pollution, as well as promoting biodiversity in coastal areas.
But the industry’s largest trade body, Cruise Lines International Association, said in a statement that it was ‘astonished’ at the decision and that such measures ‘unfairly stigmatise’ the industry.
The order prohibits cruise ships carrying more than 900 passengers from putting them ashore for sight-seeing excursions (file image shows cruise ship docked off Villefranche-sur-Mer)
‘In the interest of local economic players as well as travellers who wish to discover this region, we urge the authorities to reconsider this decision,’ it said in a statement.
The local Green Party is among those who have hailed the decision as a ‘victory’, calling it a ‘decisive turning point for the quality of life, public health and the protection of our marine ecosystems.’
‘For years, we have been calling for an end to these cruise ships that pollute our air, our water, destroy our unique biodiversity and increase overtourism. All this for derisory economic benefits,’ party leader Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux said.
Estrosi said the city faced demand to put cruise ship tourists ashore swelling to 300,000 people by 2026, from 160,000 last year.
He said the ban would result in a 70 per cent drop in the number of passengers arriving by cruises.
‘At the moment, we have [ships] that are real floating towns with more than 5,000 passengers,’ he wrote on X.
‘These [ships] do not correspond in any way to the tourist model that we want to develop.’
The port already expects some 124 calls by cruise ships carrying between 32 and 700 passengers for 2025.
French media reports that some 40 cruise liners that were due to dock in local waters in the summer will be affected.
Meanwhile work is currently underway to upgrade the port’s facilities for smaller cruise ships, in particular electricity connections that allow for them to shut down their engines while docked.
