ADVERTISEMENTWhen Mayor Christian Estrosi addressed a crowd of supporters for Nice’s traditional New Year’s ceremony this week, nobody was prepared for the bombshell he would drop.
"Cruises that pollute, that dump their low-cost clientele who consume nothing but leave their waste behind, have no place here," he announced. "We prevented concrete from suffocating Nice, it is not to let overtourism suffocate it in turn."
"I don't want floating hotels to drop anchor in front of Nice,” he added.
In a statement sent to Euronews Travel, Christian Estrosi’s office told us,
“We have decided, based on the contracts signed in 2025, to ban these large units and allow only those that do not exceed 190 meters in length and a capacity of 900 passengers.”
But not all cruise ships will be hit by the new rules. The mayor advised he will specifically stop ships longer than 190m and those with a capacity for more than 900 passengers from docking in the ports.
"I want us to act so that we are rid of cruise ships from July 1, 2025, without having to wait until January 1, 2026," Estrosi told Nice Press. "We are working to cancel all cruises that can still be cancelled and we will draft a banning order.”
Mayor Estrosi claims that such an order would reduce the number of arriving cruise passengers by 70 per cent.
“Venice has regained its beauty and its landscape by having a mayor who definitively refuses cruises. We intend to go in this direction, too,” he said to local press.
Why does Nice want to ban cruise ships?
Like residents of many European ports, people in Nice have had enough of the growing cruise industry.
Europe is one of the largest cruise markets in the world, with Eurostat figures showing a record 16.4 million cruise passengers passing through EU ports in 2023, five million more than a decade ago.
Cruise ships are growing too. Celebrity Cruises bring their Apex Edge-class cruise ship to Villefranche-sur-Mer, the port immediately to the east of the city of Nice. It’s a 306-metre-long behemoth, depositing over 3,400 people (and likely some of the 1,300+ crew) into the small town, which has a population of 5,012.
Even Estrosi admits that tourism is essential to Nice. Tourism office figures suggest it’s in the region of 40 per cent of the revenue of Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolis. But cruise passengers may not spend as much with local businesses as you might think, partly because they have already paid for their food and drink onboard.
A study from Bergen, Norway - a popular stop for fjord tours - found that up to 40 per cent of people never left the ship. For those who did go ashore, their average spend was less than €23.
The cruise industry argues that a passenger's average contribution to the local economy is much higher than the Bergen estimate at around $100 (€91) a day.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile there may be an economic benefit to this sudden influx of people, it can be overwhelming for small towns and cities. But although overtourism was cited by Estrosi as his main motivation, his office clarified that the environmental impact was also a significant concern.
“Today, we have units that are essentially floating cities with over 5,000 passengers, keeping their engines running, emitting sulfur and other pollutants into the atmosphere, creating no jobs, and contributing to overtourism,” added Christian Estrosi’s office. “These units in no way align with the model we wish to develop in terms of tourism, hospitality, and respect for the local population.”
Cruise ships are incredibly polluting. Even the most efficient modern cruise ships emit around 250g of CO2 per passenger kilometre, ten times more than a passenger plane.
But it’s not just CO2 that pumps out of the funnels. Sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and ‘black carbon’ or soot is belched into the sky, damaging air quality and contributing to acid rain. Some LNG-powered vessels also release methane.
ADVERTISEMENTThese floating cities release huge amounts of wastewater, leech toxic heavy metals into the ocean and endanger fragile wildlife, ocean mammals and habitats.
Several European towns and cities have already banned cruise ships from their ports. Venice, in 2021, banned ships from docking in its historic centre. Mallorca has limited the number of ships that can dock at once, and Barcelona has closed its north terminal to cruise ships.
Will locals in Nice be supportive of Estrosi’s wish?
Many locals have long been campaigning for an end to cruise ships in Nice and other parts of the region so they welcome Estrosi’s plans
"For all ecologists in Nice, this is a victory after several years of mobilisation against cruise boats that greatly impact the quality of air and water, impact biodiversity and increase mass tourism," Juliette Chesnel-Leroux, leader of the green opposition in Nice, told Euronews Travel
ADVERTISEMENT"However, this announcement is restricted to boats above 900 passengers, meaning big yachts are still welcome in Nice and The Villefranche-sur-mer bay area. First step, but not enough," she continued.
In a statement, Hélène Granouillac, Green councillor for the City of Nice, called the announcement a 'facade.'
"This new cookie-cutter announcement by the president of the Nice-Côte-d'Azur Metropolis masks inconsistencies," she said. "Such a measure is only acceptable if certain preconditions are attached... otherwise the local economy will suffer."
European ports have played host to a number of anti-cruise protests over the last year, many of which involved the group ‘Stop Crosière,’ or ‘Stop Cruises.’. Based in the Marseille region, they are actively campaigning to ban cruises. A statement on their website reads:
ADVERTISEMENT“On an environmental level as on a human level, nothing justifies the maintenance of these absurd, energy-intensive and toxic floating cities.”
Speaking on the ici Province radio station, a local Radio France outlet, co-founder and spokesperson for the Stop Croisiere collective Guillaume Piccard welcomed the prospect of a ban, but raised concerns with the details.
“What is a bit regrettable in the statement of Mr. Estrosi is that he wants to sort between luxury cruises and mass cruises,” said Piccard (translated). “He wants the small cruise ships to still come into the port of Nice, just that their passengers don’t drop rubbish on the ground.”
Jacky Bonnemains, director of the NGO Robin des Bois, also takes Estrosi’s comments with a pinch of salt. “The declarations made by Mr. Estrosi, Mayor of Nice, are a bit of a flash in the pan,” he told Euronews Travel. “It’s a political show before the United Nations Ocean Conference.”
ADVERTISEMENTFrom the industry side, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) told Euronews Travel, "We regret the comments made by the Mayor of Nice, which unfairly stigmatise both tourism professionals and our passengers."
CLIA points out that no large cruise ships are scheduled to call at the Port of Nice in 2025. "Furthermore, only three large cruise ships and 34 medium-sized ships are expected to anchor off Villefranche-sur-Mer during 2025," the spokesperson says.
Can the Nice mayor ban cruise ships?
According to BFMTV, Christian Estrosi and the town hall have little to no power to ban cruise ships. The decision will rest on the shoulders of the port and the chamber of commerce.
However, Estrosi does have some influence. In the past, he has held various ministerial positions in the French government, serving under both Sarkozy and Chirac. He is also a former president of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, which owns the ports in Nice.
ADVERTISEMENTExperts have also questioned the deadline of 1 July as being rather optimistic to be able to implement a ban. Jacky Bonnemains points out that reservations have already been made for 124 cruises to dock in Nice, up from 117 in 2024 and 97 in 2023.
“These 2025 mega-ship calls are planned by MSC and Costa Croisières,” says Bonnemains. “They will anchor in the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer bordering Nice, where passengers will embark and disembark by shuttle.” Parking offshore and shuttling passengers in would not be stopped under Mr Estrosi’s proposed ban.
The Robin des Bois chief also criticises the language used by the mayor, noting that he talked about low-cost passengers and litter, but failed to mention air pollution. “It's more a class opposition between the poor and the rich,” says Boonemains, “than a critique of the various nuisances of mass cruising.”
The efforts of the mayor to ban cruise ships came less than two weeks after it was announced Nice had been picked to host the United Nations Ocean Conference in June.
ADVERTISEMENTWhile the sentiment behind Estrosi’s announcement is well-received by the environmental lobby, the impact will be dwarfed by the impact of heightened aviation activity in the region.
Nice Côte d'Azur Airport undertook a major expansion in 2024, with works ongoing throughout this year. By 2026, it will have increased its capacity from the current level of 14 million passengers per year to a new high of 18 million passengers.
The expansion has been backed by a €100 million loan from the European Investment Bank and has received plenty of vocal support from Mayor Christian Estrosi.
"He will also welcome a Yacht Show in Nice in September this year," adds Chesnel-Leroux. "The ecological politics of our Mayor is really inconsistent."
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