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Reduce the number of cruise ships in Barcelona? In Florida they see him Martian

2022-06-06T17:40:48.924Z


Cruise passengers visiting the Catalan capital position themselves for and against Colau's proposal to regulate maritime tourism


Norwegian Epic

's pool slides

jut 215 feet above the smoldering chimneys.

This Norwegian-flagged cruise ship, with capacity for 4,100 passengers and with routes through the Mediterranean from 700 euros, is one of the three giants of maritime tourism that were moored on Sunday in the Port of Barcelona.

Taxis and black vans ceaselessly transferred the crews ready for the next start of another marathon of Mediterranean ports.

The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, wants to put an end to these visits.

The Leland family took it easy on their last day in Barcelona.

Sitting on a bench in front of La Pedrera, these visitors from Florida (United States), left Barcelona nine days ago.

They returned on Friday and spent the weekend in the city amid hungover-faced Primavera Sound attendees and Peruvians from all over Spain to watch their team play a friendly at Espanyol's stadium.

It was the second cruise of the Lelands sailing from Barcelona, ​​the previous one was twelve years ago.

The father, asked about the objections made by sectors aware of the environmental impact of this tourism, responded surprised: “In Florida, these issues are not even raised.

I of you would not put limits on cruises, you live well, and it is thanks to tourism money.

Colau sent a letter last May to the President of the Generalitat, the Minister of Transport and the President of the Port of Barcelona urging them to regulate a sector that in the Catalan capital is, in his opinion, “totally unsustainable”.

Steve Alley, from Colorado (United States), recently returned with his family from a cruise, played down the pollution issue: “Nothing is thrown overboard on the ship, and the waste is kept on the ship.

What contamination are they talking about?

“Besides”, Alley pointed out, “this city depends on tourism, if they do, many companies will close”.

Writer David Foster Wallace, in one of his most famous reports,

Something Supposedly Fun I'll Never Do Again

, interpreted it this way: "It is no accident that these ships are all so white and clean, they are made to represent the Calvinist triumph of capitalism and industry over the primary and decadent force of the sea.

For Alley, the contamination would be the same if they had traveled by car or by plane —to travel to Barcelona they also took a plane.

A study published in 2021 by the journal

Marine Pollution bulletin

concluded that the energy required to spend a night on a cruise ship is 12 times higher than that required to sleep in a hotel and that, in one day, a cruise ship emits as much carbon dioxide as 12,000 cars.

Another study from that year, by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, established that the pollution suffered by Barcelona linked to these boats was only 3%.

The Alleys gazed in wonder at Casa Batlló on Paseo de Gracia on their last day in Barcelona.

There were also those who were critical of maritime tourism.

This was the case of the Belgians Luisa and Ade, friends and retirees traveling through Spain.

They said they were "totally against cruise ships" because their city, Antwerp, is saturated with large ships that reach the city center, according to their testimony.

"Although Ade is guilty!" Luisa snapped at her friend: "She was in Barcelona once on a cruise, admit it!"

Ade recognized that she hadn't just done it once, but twice.

"The best thing is being able to visit so many places, from Istanbul to Rome."

And the worst?

Ade remembered nothing negative about the experience.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-06-06

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