The Cruise Industry and Tourism Sustainability (Research Paper Sample)

The cruise industry and tourism sustainability
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Introduction
Tourism, leisure, and travel services have all seen significant growth in the recent few decades. Since 1950, the number of visitors from other countries has climbed from 25 million to a projected 1.6 billion by 2020, according to the World Tourism Organization (Coles and Hall, 2008; Gellatly, 2016). This rapidly expanding industry has a slew of advantages, and it now accounts for 9% of global GDP and 11% of worldwide employment. The sector has undergone a number of significant alterations in order to provide customers with convenient and reasonably priced services. Improved commercial tactics and investment in research have made cruise businesses more competitive in the global market. In addition to larger ships, there are smaller vessels for sailing and yachts that can travel to distant locations where larger ships are prohibited. In 1970, North America's first industry, the cruise industry, was born. Since then, it has grown in popularity, attracting tourists from all over the world with its tourism offerings. The cruise business employs people from every continent under the sun. As a result of this increase, the economy will suffer greatly. It's a shame that tourism doesn't always lead to good things. As the business expands, so do its detrimental effects on the economy and the environment, making today's consensus on sustainable tourism all the more critical (Wood, 2017). To put it another way, sustainable tourism is the practice of visiting a location as a tourist with the intention of having a good impact on its economy, social structure, and environment (Candela and Figini, 2012). If you're planning a cruise, you'll want to read this paper to learn more about the bad and positive effects that the cruise industry has on both the global and local level.
Cruise industry impacts
A lot has changed since then. People now have more money to spend and can afford to go on cruises, which are very popular because they can afford to travel in style. The cruise industry is having a hard time trying to make tourism more environmentally friendly. Companies that exploit the earth's natural features without a sustainable conservation rate are hurting the environment, which is seen as a big problem in the world we live in right now. People who work for cruise lines don't have the same rights as people who work for other companies, and they have a negative impact on people's culture and religion in the places where they go. For this type of tourism to grow and make a difference in the world, it needs to find ways to grow sustainably. People and the environment will be exploited by cruise lines and other types of tourism, which will lead to the end of them. The majority of cruise ships are petroleum-powered and burn enormous amounts of fuel. This is mostly utilized to generate power for cooking, propulsion, and maintenance of the ship's supportive onboard systems. So, it contributes to global warming by releasing large volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. With the present global increase in the manufacture and use of large cruise ships, their cumulative impact to the environment is expected to surpass that of automobiles by 2015. For example, a major cruise liner such as Royal Caribbean International has been shown to have a greater capacity to produce pollution equivalent to 1200 automobiles. The majority of petroleum effluents contain a high sulphur concentration, which readily alters the properties of the surrounding water, endangering the immense biodiversity along the cruise ship travel routes (Johnson, 2002).
Cruise liners have been contaminating the environment and are responsible for the environment while remaining beneath the radar. Everyone believes this since cruises are usually on the ocean, and government officials and environmentalists haven't seen the pollution and garbage that each of these massive ships generates. According to reports, the average huge cruise ship emits 0.50 Kg of carbon dioxide per passenger mile into the atmosphere as compared to flying, which is faster and emits roughly 0.300 Kg of C02 per passenger mile into the atmosphere (The Guardian, 2006). Ships release estimated millions of metric tonnes of tiny airborne particles each year. Particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter are responsible for 0.6 million deaths worldwide (Taylor & Francis, 2011).
Furthermore, cruise liners cause severe damage to marine life and coral reefs. Coral reefs may be found in 109 nations. Reefs are harmed by cruise ship anchors and sewage in more than half of them (Lester & Weeden, 2004). Bigger ships to carry more passengers are being brought into place. These new ships are thought to pose greater environmental risks. Every year, these are constructed to meet market demand. The Royal Caribbean International ship Independence of the Seas, for example, has an ice-skating rink, a water park with a wave machine, and a boxing ring. Cruise lines that cater to the mass market advertise their ships as alternative vacation destinations. It is no rocket science to understand how much energy is used to keep all these facilities on the ship running and the main energy used to power the ship. The impacts mentioned above are all doings above the level to conserve the environment; these multimillion companies need to find a sustainable way to produce cruise lining from a "greener" perspective. The large-scale expansion of cruise tourism has triggered various economic and social impacts (Marušić, Horak and Tomljenović, 2008). 
Societies are dynamic and always changing, and change is necessary for positive development. The cruise line companies act in ways detrimental to societies and communities with which the cruises are familiar. In addition to environmental concerns, the cruise industry is failing to fulfill its responsibilities in other areas of responsible tourism. The tourism industry has always seen the cruise line business lack workers' rights and proper working conditions with low wages. Society is also a major issue that is deteriorated by the traveling of cruise ships. Cruises must sustainably travel to different islands for societies of these islands to remain the way they are. The interaction of tourists with locals weakens the local culture; in some cases, the locals see the tourists as wealthy and want to be like them, so instinctively, they try to adopt the things they do, say, and wear. Because of prolonged visitation by tourists, the islanders are irritated and annoyed to the point of negative experiences. This can be changed so that the culture of these islanders still exists through limits and raising taxes for cruising (Johnson, 2002).
Furthermore, the cruise ships hire employees from around the world, some workers may be getting underpaid, but relative to their home country, the wage being offered may appear to be better. This is an example of how the cruise liners manipulate workers and take advantage of the people they can hire (Johnson, 2002). Their conditions are unethical and over extensive; 18-hour workdays, small cabins to stay in after shifts, and long periods away from their close ones and hometown to make money to send back to their respective families. These problems have always been an issue because the laws of any country do not bind cruise line companies, which causes a conflict of interest in workers' rights; this and any other problems that are settled by law, such as dumping, are greatly debated upon this issue. Corporate social responsibility and ethical business are not important for these cruise tycoons. The cruise business is controlled by two companies: Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean; Carnival has historically been lacking in CSR, with little care for shareholders' and employees' environmental concerns. The interaction of a visitor and a local can be beneficial, but at the boiling point, people of the town begin to get upset with tourists and want them to leave, which can cause mugging and robbery of wealthy tourists on vacation in these regions., At the same time, increasing cruise activities restrict residents' space where some locals are not allowed to use their resources and sometimes push them to adopt different moral conduct (Coles and Hall, 2008). Subsequently, this causes a deterrence of culture caused by the heavy amount of tourist interaction. Cruises also negatively impact the society of the regions they embark in because these regions now increase prices so they can make a profit from tourists. Still, at the same time, the island's local people have to live and experience high rates of price changes while still having a fixed salary; they may not be able to adapt to this change. These problems often change these societies and mostly towards the negative spectrum; alternatives need to be realized for sustainable tourism to take over. 
Economic benefits accrue to suppliers of food and beverages, maintenance services, and other goods and services. Customer expenses. Taxi services, shore trips, food and beverages, retail merchandise, and restaurant services are all included in cruise services. According to Papathanassis, the indirect economic benefits of cruise services include purchases made by sellers of products sourced from other businesses. The services' indirect economic consequences include the purchase of products and services by the beneficiaries of the customers' direct and indirect expenditures. The revenue streams provided by cruise travelers have an effect on the economic activities and bottom lines of destinations on a direct, induced, and indirect basis. The influx of cruise visitors and the revenue stream in destinations drives...