CRUISE SWIP
Ross A. Klein
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR CRUISE SHIP BLUES
The cruise line industry has a $500 million annual advertising budget. The environment, workers and customers of the industry have Ross Klein.
Its a more even contest than you might imagine.
Robert Gibson, Alternatives Journal
Cruise Ship Blues is a mine of information about whats changed, what hasnt, and what should change in the cruise industry. No cruise charm, no dull travel destination talk, no self-serving claims of corporate responsibility just sobering, informative, often entertaining, first-person accounting, meticulously researched. Sure to become an indispensable primer for anyone considering a cruise vacation, and a must-read for all those who endeavor to preserve the ocean realm.
Coralie Breen, CEO/President, Oceans Blue Foundation
Come aboard the first in-depth examination of the international cruise industry, and find out why advocates for social justice, fair labor practices, equitable tax laws, environmental protection, and competent medical care have started paying attention to the ship on the other side of the curtain. Klein's below-deck tour scuttles the Love Boat myth and exposes the fragile foundation supporting a multi-billion dollar industry...
Gershon Cohen, Ph.D., Project Director, Campaign to Safeguard Americas Waters, Earth Island Institute
For anyone whos ever been seduced by the cruise industrys slick ads, Ross Klein's fascinating expose will make you think twice before booking your next voyage.
The industrys dirty, dangerous and deceptive practices are more reminiscent of the Exxon Valdez than the Love Boat, replete with scandalous tales of toxic pollution and bungled cover-ups, utter disdain for passenger health or safety, and above all, lurid accounts of greed trumping human and environmental welfare.
This book causes outrage.
Russell Long, Ph.D., former America's Cup Skipper, Executive Director, Bluewater Network
Behind all the hype and glitz of luxury cruising, there is a real story, told here by Ross Klein, whose expertise is founded on the personal experience of thirty cruises. Here the underside of the industry is brought into daylight. Klein's readable and authoritative volume may not dim your enthusiasm for cruising, but it will open your eyes to a very troubling corporate culture that abuses both customers and workers, and threatens the environment; and it may save you some money.
Forewarned is fore-armed.
Paul Chapman, author of Trouble on Board, the Plight of
International Seafarers
Cruise Ship Blues ...is well written and full of hard to get information for anyone cruise lovers included.
It shows how millions of relatively privileged individuals engage mostly unreflected in socially and ecologically unsustainable recreational behavior.
A sustainable future would call for soft tourism, implying that the wasteful, environmentally and socially damaging cruise industry be downsized...
Isidor Wallimann, co-editor of On the Edge of Scarcity: Environment, Resources, Population, Sustainability, and Conflict
CRUISE SHIP
BLUES
THE UNDERSIDE OF THE CRUISE INDUSTRY
ROSS A. KLEIN
New Society Publishers
Cataloguing in Publication Data:
A catalog record for this publication is available from the National Library of Canada.
Copyright 2002 by Ross A. Klein.
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh. Larry Mulvehill, Corbis Images.
Printed in Canada by Friesens. Second Printing.
Paperback ISBN: 0-86571-462-2
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Cruise Ship Blues should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.
To order directly from the publishers, please add $4.50 shipping to the price of the first copy, and $1.00 for each additional copy (plus GST in Canada). Send check or money order to:
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P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada 1-800-567-6772
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Inaugural Sail: An Introduction to the
THE INAUGURAL SAIL: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CRUISE INDUSTRY
S ailing the seas onboard A cruise ship, the days filled with luxury and pampering, perfect weather, glorious food, and impeccable service ... its a dream vacation. What could be better than lounging on the deck of a floating resort, soaking up the sun, indulging in whatever fits your mood?
That image is what sells cruises. But do the people sitting in the sun, sipping those margaritas, realize the environmental and social cost of this indulgence? Are those passengers aware of the environmental practices of the cruise industry, of the lifestyle of the servers and staff aboard the ship, of the risks to safety and security that are part of everyday life on a cruise ship? The answer, unfortunately, is: likely not.
Most people who go on a cruise put anything that interferes with their vacation out of their mind. They are unconcerned about the pollution left in the ships wake, or about employees working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 10 to 12 months straight, at incomes below minimum wage. Nor do they give a thought to the risk of illness from food or injury from an accident. This is the part of the cruise experience thats left out of the brochures. Its not part of a cruise passengers reality, but trust me, it exists.
IS THE CRUISE INDUSTRY SUSTAINABLE?
Cruise Ship Blues: The Underside of the Cruise Industry is guided by a simple question: is the cruise industry sustainable? The answer to this question has many parts. For example, is the industry environmentally sustainable? In other words, does the cruise industry treat the environment in such a way that leaves it undamaged? As well,
the facts behind the hidden lifestyle of shipboard workers and the cruise industrys economic record cast doubt on whether the industry is socially and morally sustainable. The answers to these questions, for many of us, are not encouraging. The fact is that the cruise industry has historically shown a disregard for the environment, for the welfare of its workers, and even for the well-being of its paying passengers. That is the focus of this book.
AN INDUSTRY OVERVIEW
Cruise ship vacations are the fastest growing segment of leisure travel. Since 1970 the number of people taking a cruise has increased by more than 1,000 percent. In North America the increase has been fivefold from 1.4 million to almost 7 million passengers over the 20-year period from 1980 to 2000. Worldwide, more than 12 million passengers boarded cruise ships in the year 2000.1
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