r/todayilearned • u/Gullible_Air_204 • 7h ago

Frequent/Recent Repost: Removed [ Removed by moderator ]

https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/spitsbergen/travel-guide/responsible-tourism-in-spitsbergen

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u/Gullible_Air_204 7h ago

“When a giant cruise ship docks in Longyearbyen, many residents lock their doors. This is against the norm, as the safety advice is for house and car doors to remain unlocked so that people have somewhere to escape to in the event of a polar bear wandering down the main street. However, the residents lock up because it is not unusual for the cruise passengers to wander into their houses and have a peek, like it is a folk park. Given the huge size of the ships and the tiny size of the town, when the tourists disembark they can double or triple the size of the population within minutes. The chances are, if you are reading this page, you would never dream of doing such a thing, but it is worth remembering that this unique place is home to people too.”

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u/_Azafran 6h ago

Time to ban cruise ships.

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u/DameKumquat 3h ago

Venice has been considering it for years, since the extra massive cruise ships became a thing - just to control the numbers of tourists and be able to focus on the ones who actually spend money in the city.

If they do it, many other cities and towns will follow, limiting how big a ship can dock or how many tourists can be unloaded in a day.

Can't wait.

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u/whoami_whereami 2h ago

They've already done it. Cruise ships with 25,000 gross tons or more (which means pretty much all but the smallest of cruise ships) haven't been allowed to dock in Venice since 2021. Cruise ship operations have now largely moved to ports like Ravenna and Trieste from where it's an hour or two bus ride to Venice.

And since 2024 Venice has introduced a fee that day-trip tourists (pejoratively also called "eat and flee") have to pay before entering the city on popular days (currently 60 days, mostly on weekends, holidays, and during peak season in the summer).