Resumen de The transport and environmental impacts of cruise ships. Application to the case of the port of barcelona
The rapid evolution of the cruise industry in the last 50 years is evident. In the nineteenth century, cruise ships were simple modes of transport used by immigrants to travel on transoceanic voyages from Europe to North America in search of a better future. Now, they have become authentic floating cities full of amenities and activities to do on board, whose main objective is leisure and pleasure. Passengers no longer go on a cruise ship simply to get from one point to another. Instead, they seek a unique experience on the ship and do not care so much about the final destination. For this reason, many experts consider that cruise ships have become a travel destination in themselves.
This evolution of the concept of cruise ship that occurred in the 1970s has not been easy. It has led to a set of problems that have significantly affected ports and the cities, and to which they have had to adapt.
The main change is associated with the increase in size of the ships to accommodate more passengers and all the on-board activities. To receive this type of ships, ports have had to adapt their berthing line, maritime station, adjacent esplanade and road accesses, among other factors. Cruise ships have been increasing in size every year. In 2009, a ship reached 360 m in length and 222,900 GT of gross tonnage. Given this gigantism of ships, this thesis aims to verify and analyse whether an increase in cruise ship capacity and size is justified and supported by economies of scale.
The large passenger capacity of these ships also entails difficulties in managing passenger mobility, especially when more than two cruises concur in the same time slot. In this case, the disembarkation operation becomes very complex, since passengers all leave at once and in a short period of time.
This thesis analyses the mobility of passengers and studies the main variables that explain disembarking operations.
Another important aspect is the impact that cruise ships have on the environment. Moving cruise ships at service speed requires a large amount of fuel. Consequently, polluting gases, mainly nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, suspended particles and greenhouse gases, are emitted in greater amounts into the environment. Many voices have been raised in the civilian population and public administrations that reject cruise tourism. For this reason, by 2020, more restrictive environmental regulations had been created, mainly limiting the sulfur content in marine fuels to 0.5%. Shipowners have various options to meet these requirements: use scrubbers together with catalytic reduction devices, use distilled fuels and less pollutants, the cold ironing solution to connect electrically at the docks to obtain energy or use liquefied natural gas (GNL) as an alternative fuel.
The last section of this thesis tries to determine whether LNG could be the most valid option for cruise lines to mitigate emissions to the environment. LNG almost completely eliminates emissions of sulfur oxides and particles. Nitrogen oxides and CO2 are reduced by 90% and 20% respectively. Furthermore, the price of LNG is almost half that of heavy fuel oil, which makes LNG economically attractive.
The idea of adopting LNG as a cruise fuel is quite new. Very few cruise ships in the world are adapted to this system. Therefore, an analysis and study of its viability is advisable and may help cruise companies to decide whether to adopt LNG as the majority fuel for cruise ships.
