Cruise passengers booed by environmentalists on arrival in Brittany

A cruise ship docking in Brittany was booed by environmental activists this weekend - some of whom held placards reading ‘shame on you’ - to highlight the environmental impact of cruise tourism.

Between 60 and 80 protesters - some dressed in carnival costumes and polar bear outfits - shouted at the cruise ship the World Traveller as it docked in Douarnenez (Finistère) on Sunday morning (October 8). There were around 200 passengers on board.

Some of their banners read: ‘You are not welcome’, and ‘go home’, and some campaigners shouted: “We don’t need your money.”

One protester told Le Parisien that the movement was against all “cruise and luxury ships”.

The World Traveller - which is 126 metres long and has a 200 passenger capacity - docked in Douarnenez as part of a 10-day European tour between Dublin and Lisbon. Its trips cost between €8,048 and €13,257 per passenger (before any offers or discounts).

The protester said: “[These ships] spend their time travelling between poles to do ‘last chance’ tourism: ‘See the last penguins, the last polar bears, the last icebergs’. It's obscene.

“This [protest] is to show a bit of support to polar fauna that are suffering from climate change and all the consequences it will have for our lifestyle in this society.”

Another protester said: “We are simply denouncing this industry that shouldn’t exist. We do not need it. Biodiversity is more important. So let’s stop this short-term vision and this form of hypocrisy.”

One passenger, a 49-year-old education consultant from Seattle in the US, later said that the protest had been “a useful educational experience”. He said: “That’s one of the reasons we travel, for perspectives from other places.”

However when asked if he would now stop taking cruises or similar boat trips, he said: “I don’t know.”

Controversial cruises

Cruise ships have long been controversial in coastal towns in France, and are often the subject of protests and anti-cruise petitions. A similar protest took place in the same spot in Brittany in May this year.

At the same time residents of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) took the city’s port authorities to court over pollution from cruise ships, and its impact on air and water quality.

In August an anti-cruise ship petition by Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan attracted 48,000 signatures.

Mr Payan branded the ships "floating cities” that “emit as much pollution as a million cars". He said that the “scandal…is attacking our lungs, our health; it pollutes the sea, destroys biodiversity of this harbour, which, as you know, is the most beautiful in the world”.

One study by the NGO Transport & Environment found that cruise ships emitted more than eight million tonnes of CO2 while travelling in European waters in 2022. This is the equivalent emissions of 50,000 Paris-New York flights.

A 2023 study found that Marseille and Le Havre were among the “most polluted ports in Europe”, largely due to cruise ships.

The World Traveller ship is operated by Florida-based Atlas Ocean Voyages. On its website, the company claims that its smaller vessels - as opposed to huge ‘traditional’ cruise ships - consume “only a fifth of the fuel” used by regular cruise ships, which “reduces their impact on the environment”.

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