PLACE
Our cruises allow people to visit some of the most beautiful and exciting destinations that the world has to offer – and we want to help to keep them that way. We want to deliver positive social and economic outcomes for the local communities we visit. Our investments in the development of new sustainable cruise terminals are creating jobs and bringing new visitors to these places. Collaboration with local authorities, community groups and partners, such as the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), to share information and integrate policies and strategies helps support responsible tourism management. We are also a member of both the CEO-led Sustainability Committee and the Sustainability Task Force of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), working closely with travel industry partners to develop and implement sustainable solutions for our industry.
Economic Impact
We continue to invest millions of Euros in new sustainable terminal facilities, and work has progressed on several of these:
The Durban Cruise Terminal in South Africa became operational in December 2021
Construction of the new MSC Cruises Terminal in Miami began in the summer of 2021
A new MSC Cruises Terminal in Barcelona is due to be operational in 2024.
All our new cruise terminals will meet the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver rating.
We aim to be a force for good in the communities we visit. We stimulate the local economy by procuring food and beverage items for our ships. Our guests contribute too when they buy excursions, meals or souvenirs from local vendors.
In popular destinations, we typically work with tour providers who employ locally and support them as they build their business. This helps to generate jobs and engage with the local community to create shared value.
When we develop our private island destinations, including the Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, Portuguese Island and Pomene, we always give a strong preference to employing local staff to build and maintain shore operations.
We continue to work collaboratively with CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) to support the sustainable tourism aspirations of the destinations we visit.
Economic Impact
Responsible Tourism
Unmanaged tourism is a challenge for many of the world’s most popular travel destinations, and we are committed to playing our part in addressing this. We work with our tour operators and relevant local authorities to find ways to minimise crowding on city infrastructure and traffic. This includes finding new sites to visit, expanding the area of interest beyond city centres. We are determined to be a positive and engaged player in driving responsible and sustainable tourism.
Transport: The first step in offering greener tours is to consider how we transport passengers from ports to places of interest. We are committed to expanding our utilisation of green ground transportation over time. During 2022, we were able to replace some fossil-fuelled vehicles to electric and hybrid shuttle buses in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Protectours: Excursions with a lower carbon footprint are growing in popularity and, in 2022, we offered more responsible shore excursions called ‘Protectours’ at 57 destinations. These tours, first introduced in 2020, include walking, hiking, bicycling, canoeing and kayaking excursions ashore – all low carbon activities. We aim to have at least one ‘Protectour’ in each destination by the end of 2024.
Supporting tour operators: Our partnership continued with Travelife, a training and certification initiative specifically designed to help tourism companies that want to understand their responsibilities and become more sustainable. Travelife provides our tour operators with information and training that allows them to take action to reduce their environmental impact.
Nature Positive tourism: In 2022 we supported two nature tourism focused initiatives of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). ‘Towards Nature Positive Travel & Tourism’ is a comprehensive report to highlight the important role that the travel and tourism industry must play in reducing impacts that result in biodiversity loss and support nature conservation. MSC Cruises was highlighted in this report for several nature positive actions, including the diversion of ships away from sperm whale populations in the East Mediterranean. Further to this, and to strengthen the commitment by the travel and tourism industry at the UN Biodiversity conference (COP 15), MSC Cruises signed the WTTC Nature Positive Vision for Travel & Tourism, to help position the travel and tourism sector as a ‘guardian of nature’ and to demonstrate the important role the sector can play in the implementation of global biodiversity goals.
Responsible Tourism
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS
Our sustainability strategy is organized around four key pillars: Planet, People, Place and Procurement
Browse our Sustainability reports and find out what are our actions and goals to achieve sustainable cruising.