Tourist facilities in ports

Cruise tourism adds significant economic value, but it also leads to unwanted externalities, as cruise ships create air emissions, waste and noise in EU ports and seas. The Communication ‘An integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union’ (COM (2007) 575 final) stresses the importance of reconciling economic development, environmental sustainability and quality of life within coastal regions and islands. The Action Plan accompanying the Communication (SEC (2007) 1278) acknowledges the importance of promoting the development of quality coastal tourism and states that, as a first step, the Commission intends to assess the benefits for ports to invest in infrastructure and facilities for receiving tourists, in particular through cruise tourism.

Taking the positive and negative effects of cruise shipping into consideration, the following question arose in terms of the aim of the research, namely: ‘How to increase economic benefits and job creation in coastal regions and islands, in particular through cruise tourism, whilst reducing its negative environmental effects’?

The study was structured so as to address the objective of sustainable growth and development opportunities for coastal regions and islands through cruise tourism. The ultimate aim of the study is to devise a quantitative indicator to calculate the return on investment in tourist facilities. Figure I.1 presents a graphic overview of the relevance of this study and its main objective.