SilverSea Cruises recently burst into the consciousness of the people of Oslo. They set off fireworks for a few hundred thousand to the delight of the passengers on the Silver Whisper, but to the general horror and indignation. The ruthlessness is indicative of an industry that is founded on circumventing the port states’ rules on taxes, fees, the environment and the working environment. This year’s cruise season is long overdue and a record number of cruise tourists will be herded through the country’s streets like senile sheep. That is, if they do not then go directly on board a polluting diesel bus to invade a local sight. Or take a ride on one of these silly double-decker buses that plague the country’s big cities during the summer. The cruise industry is based on gross exploitation of international rules on shipping, which in its time were established to ensure the transport of passengers between countries. When the plane took over the transport of passengers, shipowners in Miami realized that they could take advantage of the regulations by sending floating hotels on a trip to nowhere. In this way, they could avoid taxes and fees and troublesome rules that safeguarded the environment and workers’ rights. Things that would have happened if the hotel was on land. This is how a huge billion-dollar industry was born. The ships that visit Norway in the hundreds every year are almost without exception registered with flags of convenience. Or in case of need in the Norwegian International Ship Register. All turnover on board is exempt from VAT, tax on labor and employer’s contribution. Even the new and modern floating apartment blocks burn cheap asphalt-like oil and spew out tons of sulfur and particles over cities and countries. The passengers are flown almost without exception to the turning ports, thus contributing to further large emissions of CO₂. The shipping companies naturally plan for the passengers to spend as much money as possible on board and as little as possible when they are ashore. The pay and working conditions of the employees on board are of a nature we would never accept for employees in Norway. Romanian workers who worked in Norway during the construction of a new cruise ship received NOK 30 per hour. Cruise tourists are only a nuisance to the locals and displace other tourists. On my way through Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger, I think that Norway is about to become a geriatric Disneyland where hordes of white- and blue-haired tourists are guided from place to place without leaving anything but small change. Cruise ship owners become rich from spying on our common infrastructure without contributing anything other than a very modest port fee. According to Norwegian law, the port fee must only go to port purposes – in practice facilitating even more troublesome cruise calls. It is high time that Norway takes a stand against this most parasitic and environmentally hostile form of tourism. We must demand that the industry comply with Norwegian rules on taxes, the environment and working conditions. Or at least a hundredfold port dues to get rid of the nuisance. This is how our country can appear as the world-leading destination Norway deserves to be – free of cruise hordes and much more attractive to environmentally conscious and more profitable tourists. Norwegian citizens would certainly rather live in the tourism Michelin restaurant than in the tourism McDonalds.
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McDonalds Tourism – Expression
