Cruise industry growth in Europe is creating jobs and billions of euros in economic activity, but the sector is still facing difficult questions about emissions, overcrowding and the impact of large ships on popular destinations.
Cruise companies have increasingly found themselves at the centre of Europe’s tourism debate. Protests in major ports have highlighted concerns about overtourism, air pollution and the pressure that large numbers of visitors can place on historic cities and coastal communities. For an industry built around moving thousands of people from one destination to another, the criticism is difficult to avoid.
But the picture is more complicated than the size of a cruise ship might suggest.
The European cruise industry generated an estimated €64.1 billion in total economic output in 2024 and supported about 445,000 jobs, according to the Cruise Lines International Association’s European economic impact report. The industry also contributed €28.3 billion to European GDP and €16.4 billion in wages.
Those figures help explain why cruise tourism remains important to Europe, even as some cities reconsider how many cruise passengers they want to receive. The debate is no longer simply about whether cruises are good or bad for tourism. Increasingly, it is about how the industry can continue operating while reducing the environmental and social pressures associated with mass tourism.
Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises, argues that the scale of cruising needs to be put into perspective. Speaking to Euronews Business for The Big Question, he said cruises represented less than 2% of travel packages sold globally in 2025.
Barcelona is often cited in discussions about cruise-related overtourism. Yet cruise passengers represent only a small share of the city’s overall daily visitor numbers, according to the figures cited by MSC. That does not remove the pressure created by large ships arriving at the same time, but it suggests that the wider tourism challenge cannot be attributed to cruising alone.
The timing of cruise visits also gives destinations a degree of predictability that other forms of tourism may not provide. Cruise itineraries are generally planned around two years in advance, allowing ports and local businesses to prepare for scheduled arrivals.
Onorato said this predictability can help small businesses make practical decisions, such as increasing restaurant capacity when they know a ship will bring a set number of visitors.
That planning advantage, however, does not resolve the environmental question.
Cruise ships are large, energy-intensive vessels, and their emissions have become one of the industry’s most closely watched issues. Cruise operators are investing in newer propulsion systems, cleaner fuels and technology designed to reduce the amount of energy ships consume.
One of the most significant developments has been the introduction of dual-fuel engines, which can operate on conventional marine fuel and alternative fuels. But the transition is still at an early stage. According to figures cited by the industry, members of CLIA operate 327 ships representing about 90% of global cruise capacity, while only 30 of those vessels were equipped with dual-fuel engines at the time of the figures used in the original discussion. That represents a major increase from 2018, when only one ship had the technology, but it also shows how much of the existing fleet still depends on older systems.
The slow pace is partly a question of economics and infrastructure. Cleaner fuels remain more expensive and are not yet available at the scale needed to replace conventional marine fuels across the sector. Ships also have long operating lives, meaning the replacement of an existing fleet cannot happen as quickly as the introduction of new technology in a shorter-lived industry.
The European Union is putting additional pressure on maritime operators to accelerate the transition. FuelEU Maritime, which began applying in 2025, requires ships above 5,000 gross tonnes calling at EU ports to progressively reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the energy they use. The target begins with a 2% reduction in 2025 and rises to an 80% reduction by 2050 compared with the 2020 reference level.
Passenger ships will also face requirements to use onshore power or another zero-emission technology while at berth in covered European ports from 2030, with the rules extending to other EU ports with shore-power capacity from 2035. The aim is not only to reduce greenhouse gases but also to cut local air pollution while ships are docked close to populated areas.
For cruise operators, this means the environmental debate is no longer simply a matter of reputation. Regulation is forcing changes in the way ships are designed, powered and operated.
MSC points to the MSC Euribia as an example of what can be achieved with existing technology and alternative fuels. In June 2023, the ship completed a four-day voyage between Saint-Nazaire in France and Copenhagen using bio-LNG under a mass-balance approach. MSC says the vessel achieved net-zero emissions for that voyage and saved 43 tonnes of fuel compared with its digital twin, a virtual model used to compare energy performance.
That example is significant, but it should not be mistaken for evidence that the entire cruise fleet has reached net-zero operation. A single demonstration voyage, even one involving a large modern ship, does not solve the industry’s wider fuel, infrastructure and fleet replacement challenges.
The industry is therefore also looking at less visible ways of reducing energy consumption. Onboard heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems can be adjusted according to occupancy, while other efficiency measures can reduce the amount of energy required to operate a ship.
For cruise companies, the challenge is to make those improvements across fleets that can remain in service for decades.
At the same time, the people taking cruises are changing. The old image of cruising as a holiday primarily for retirees no longer fully reflects the market. Onorato said the average age of MSC’s cruise customers is now between 35 and 54, while solo travel and multigenerational holidays are also becoming increasingly important segments.
That shift matters because cruise companies need to attract a new generation of travellers if the industry is to maintain long-term demand. Younger passengers are also entering the market at a time when environmental considerations are playing a larger role in travel decisions, putting additional pressure on cruise operators to demonstrate measurable progress rather than relying solely on promises about future technology.
There is another factor limiting how quickly the industry can expand: shipbuilding capacity.
Most of the world’s major cruise ships are built in Europe, with leading shipyards in countries including Italy, France, Germany and Finland. The limited number of shipbuilders means cruise lines cannot simply order unlimited numbers of new vessels to meet growing demand.
From the industry’s perspective, that constraint can have an unexpected advantage. Controlled fleet growth makes it easier for companies to manage capacity and could prevent the market from expanding faster than destinations and infrastructure can accommodate.
That argument will not settle the debate in European cities dealing with crowded streets, busy ports or concerns about pollution. For destinations, the question is increasingly about how many visitors can be handled, when they arrive and what economic value remains in the local community after the ship departs.
For cruise companies, the challenge is equally clear. The industry’s economic contribution gives it a strong reason to remain part of Europe’s tourism economy, but its future depends on whether it can reduce the environmental costs of moving thousands of passengers at a time.
The next phase of cruising is therefore unlikely to be defined simply by larger ships or more passengers. It will be shaped by cleaner fuels, new propulsion systems, shore-side electricity, more efficient vessels and the ability of destinations to manage visitor numbers. The cruise industry’s reputation will ultimately depend less on what it says about those changes than on how quickly they become visible across the fleet and in the ports where its ships arrive.
