What future for the huge, controversial cruise ships?

What fascinated you about Normandy?

I wanted to show in a beautiful book to what extent the French found themselves around this liner. Normandie invented a new type of ship – its hull is still a reference model today – and it was also a national symbol. My grandmother, a worker in a factory in the Vosges, recounted that when Normandie won the blue ribbon – that of the fastest ship in the world – during its maiden voyage between Le Havre and New York between May 29 and June 3 1935, a large blue ribbon was displayed at his factory.

In January, Royal Caribbean launched the Icon of the seas, the largest cruise ship in the world which can accommodate 5,610 passengers and has 7 swimming pools… When it enters commercial service, Normandie is also the largest liner in the world…

Indeed, Normandie is the first ship to have exceeded 300 meters in length. But it has nothing comparable, in its form and its use, to current boats. In its time, Normandie was 313.75 meters long and 36.4 meters wide for 83,000 tons. Icon of the seas measures 365 meters long and more than 48 meters wide for 250,000 tons: the ship has swelled… The companies have found a trick to accommodate more passengers. Manufacturers are making boats ever taller and wider with lower hulls. Thus, these increasingly tall ships meet a need that the companies essentially created themselves in the 90s: the multiplication of the number of balconies which offers a little additional prestige to passengers. Today, everyone wants their balcony… only to almost never go there. We have the impression of seeing immense bars of HLM floating on the seas to dump thousands of people in cities already saturated by land tourism or even on islets owned by companies, like in the Bahamas, managed like an annex of the boat. This model, which tends towards massification and standardization, is reaching its limits.

You have described Icon of the seas as “the greatest anachronism in the world”…

This ship is anachronistic like all those that preceded it in this model for around fifteen years. We are aware that the economic model of globalization is reaching its limits, that its counterpart has been an acceleration of global warming. This form of floating leisure park brings opprobrium to cruising in general even though it remains an art of living in its own right. Fortunately, there are companies that operate longer-distance journeys, with longer stopovers. Others offer boats on a more human scale or with developments in terms of respect for the environment.

Isn’t a cruise ship still very polluting?

A ship is necessarily polluting. The real question is how industry players will manage the transition, in particular by placing orders for new generations of ships, which will be cleaner and more reasonable.

What do you think of high-end formulas?

It is an interesting niche, both for the relationship with travel and for the development of more ecological maritime technologies. This is true for Ponant, which practices very high luxury and cutting-edge yachting which works well. This will soon be true for Orient Express which is in the process of having its first ship built in Saint-Nazaire, the OE Corinthian which, in my opinion, embodies the future of cruises. Construction is probably underway on the most beautiful ship in the world. It will have a hull of extraordinary finesse, which will be topped by a pair of rigid and mechanical sails using a completely new technology that Solid Sail is developing. If there is no wind, the engine will take over, but sail technology can make it possible to operate in all types of weather. It’s interesting to reconnect beauty with something clean. This naval model will, in my opinion, be one of the keys to the future of cruises.

Will the two trends, that of gigantism and that of smaller and more ecological ships, persist?

I think that by 2050 we will see the collapse of the floating shopping and leisure center model. Companies will build smaller and less ambitious ships because the social burden will become unbearable. We saw this with Icon of the seas which sparked a resounding international outcry. We are at a moment of general questioning of our relationship to time, space and travel. Also about overtourism. These models will ebb. The real challenge will be to know if we can, by the end of the century, bring about a slower model that pollutes less. I am convinced that the cruise model has a future if it is able to question itself.

Despite criticism, “the largest cruise ship in the world” is born in Finland: “Dramatic consequences on the climate”

Do you think that states should tax cruise tickets like some of them have done for planes?

The ticket solution is too easy. We must stop constantly incriminating the traveler. On the other hand, States and manufacturers have a role to play between the first and last link in the chain. On the one hand, the Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, for example, are making huge investments to improve the efficiency of their site in terms of respect for the environment. The French state supports them and that is very good. At the other end of the chain, we must impose a much more rigid framework on companies so that they do not shirk responsibility when the boats are destroyed. Too many ships are dismantled in Asia, without an overall plan, by very poorly paid labor. However, by 2060, we will have a bomb in terms of management of the dismantling of ships, built since the 2000s, and no one wants to see it yet.

Up 7% compared to 2029, before Covid

According to the latest report from Clia (Cruise Lines International Association), the global organization which represents 95% of the world’s cruise ship fleet and which intends to push the industry in environmental matters, 31.7 million passengers took a cruise on board the boats of the association’s member companies last year, up 7% compared to 2019, the pre-Covid year. In the lead, American passengers (nearly 17 million). And, according to Clia, supply is expected to increase by 10% between 2024 and 2028.