Here in Part Two of the ‘Cruise Line Sustainability’ series, we address each of the challenges identified in Part One to provide a broad, high level overview of current and potential areas of focus to improve sustainability.

When we think of going on a cruise, dream destinations, ocean views, impeccable service and an all-round memorable travel experience come to mind. Globally, 272 cruise ships carry around 30 million passengers annually making the cruise industry a big player in the international tourism sector. In 2020, however, everything changed.

This pandemic, as with many industries worldwide, has placed additional question marks around the need to adapt to survive. For the cruise industry, addressing environmental concerns and increasing sustainability will potentially be a make or break. The question is: will the industry pivot to focus on #BuildingBackBetter, or will recovering profit margins play a singular role?

The European river cruise sector is booming.

The number of active cruise vessels has more than doubled between 2004 and 2017. The growth in cruise tourism has placed a heavy burden on marine environments. As a result, there has been a general rise in customers demanding more responsible and sustainable tourism. To reduce their environmental impacts and to meet the increasing demand for sustainable cruising options, river cruise companies (like Scylla Cruises) have begun to take action.

Read more to find out what Scylla is doing for sustainability in our interview with Scylla’s very own CEO, Arno Reitsma.

River cruises are becoming increasingly popular, which creates many new opportunities as well as challenges along with it.

In Europe alone, 1.4 million passengers took a river cruise in 2018, a number that’s rising annually. The kind of growth that we’ve seen from cruise tourism has placed a large burden on the marine environment. As a result, we have generally seen a rise in the trend of customers demanding for more responsible and sustainable tourism. To meet the increasing demand for sustainable cruising options, river cruise companies are starting to think about their environmental impact while finding ways on how to reduce it.

In this blog, you’ll find a list of 11 suggested practices that we’ve compiled to help make river cruising more sustainable!