Scrapping due to corona pandemic: the cruise ship cemetery

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These disused cruise ships lie close to the Turkish coast and wait to be dismantled.

The business of recycling floating hotels is booming: since the corona pandemic, the cruise industry has been in a serious crisis, and several shipping companies have filed for bankruptcy.

Here in Aliaga the ships are being gutted and dismantled by around 2,500 workers.

Kamil Onal, Association of Ship Recyclers of Turkey

"Before the pandemic, cruise lines rarely came to our shipbuilders, we used to scrap cargo ships and container ships, but now a large number of cruise lines are changing course to Aliaga. They are really huge ships."

Five cruise ships from Great Britain, Italy and the USA are currently in Aliaga, with three more on their way.  

Due to the increasing demand, the yard wants to increase the amount of recovered steel from 700,000 tons to 1.1 million tons by the end of the year.

It is quite possible that it will not stop there - cruises are only being offered again gradually and are still a long way from previous passenger numbers.

At the beginning of the corona pandemic, the virus spread widely on several cruises, in some cases passengers and crew were not allowed to go ashore.

Crossing has been allowed in Germany since the end of July, and ships are banned in the USA until at least the end of October.