Emerging Cruising Destinations Threatened By IMO Impositions?

Carnival UK cruise company boss David Dingle thinks that the latest bout of legislation of cruise emissions make reverse the positive recovery of the Cruise industry. The International Martime Organisation (IMO) has recently passed laws on Sulphur emissions, including a stipulation that lines must burn fuel that emits no more than 0.5% sulphur. Dingle considers the move ‘ill-thought out’, and ‘badly researched’.

The Baltic and North Seas are currently the only ones effected, but these are areas sailed by many of the cruise lines, including Oceania cruises 2011. The legislation there (and extending to the English channel) has a lot to with European treaties and by 2012, the Mediterranean will follow suit. It is also inevitable that North America will tighten emissions controls, particularly with growing concerns over the effects on the fragile ecology of Alaska, which is increasingly seeing cruise business even from smaller lines like Seabourn cruises.

Many cruise lines currently use residual fuels that would be prohibited under the IMO’s legislation. Dingle warns against a move to Diesel, which he thinks is inevitable by 2020. Diesel is twice as expensive as residual fuel right now. The worst case scenario is that prices, which are already rising, could be aggrevated further by a whole new industry adopting the fuel type. You don’t have to be an insider to understand that the oil market really doesn’t need that. But regardless of the fuel situation, the cruise industry is already showing signs of delayed recession: orders for new ship-builds halved this year.

The news is likely to cause much consternation in the cruise industry, which is burdening itself with growth in many new destinations. For Nile cruises 2011 is expected to be another bumper year in an emerging river cruising market. But in locations like the Nile, less efficient and older ships are often the workhorses keeping the wheels turning. A move towards the IMO’s rules in such locations could spell disaster. Still, the sun will still shine on these fabulous locations, and a little fuel problems won’t stop cruisers from soaking it up.