The cruise industry expends considerable effort to maintain a positive image on many fronts: environmental responsibility, delivering a product that is virtually absent of crime and misadventure, and providing an “all-inclusive” vacation. All are effective selling points. However a closer look behind the image suggests otherwise. This chapter explores industry practices around treatment of the environment and discusses the nature and risk of crime on cruise ships. As well, it looks at issues of health and medical care liability, and at ways the nature of a cruise ship vacation is inaccurately represented.

Countless studies present measures of cruise passenger spending and make claims about economic impact; however, with careful examination the source of the disparity between reported findings and actual passenger spending can be discerned. Drawing on data for Halifax, Nova Scotia the study shows how cruise passenger spending is overstated by the cruise industry in part because of failure to use appropriate methods of probability sampling. This sampling bias impacts overall measures of passenger spending and economic impact. In addition, the research illustrates the importance of considering market segments, weather conditions, and demographic characteristics as factors in analyzing cruise passenger spending.

Research on cruise tourism and the cruise industry is relatively recent given the "newness" of the cruise industry—it has been only 35 years since Carnival Corporation introduced its first purposebuilt cruise ship. The number of publications has been until recently relatively small and has fallen into two distinct categories. The overwhelming majority of published work is "performative" (technical or practical) in nature; only a small number are "emancipatory." The article looks at the state of cruise research and considers factors that have influenced the growth in, and nature of, cruise research, including the two streams. Looking to the future, it foresees cruise research emerging as a distinct discipline within the academy, and makes recommendations that facilitate this.

This chapter describes how the large cruise corporations pay relatively little tax in the USA, yet still manage to be a major lobby group. Strategies used by the cruise industry to influence policies and decision makers include using the media and professional lobbyists, providing campaign contributions, and building social capital.

Although most port cities seek and work to grow cruise tourism, in some cases there is broad-based public activism against cruise ships and cruise tourism. This article looks at 10 case studies where grassroots movements have confronted cruise tourism, with varying degrees of success. The study seeks to understand factors associated with the success of some groups and the lack of success of others. In addition to looking at traditional methods of community activism, the analysis looks at the use and effectiveness of social media in campaigns where it is used. The article concludes with implications for success based on a range of strategies and internal and external factors.

Cruise tourism is the fastest growing segment of leisure tourism. With its growth has come concern about the impact of cruise tourism on coastal and marine environments, local economies, and on the sociocultural nature of port communities. These three areas are key elements in analyses focused on responsible tourism, and form a critical base from which to consider strategies to ensure the sustainable development of cruise tourism. The goal of this article is to illustrate how a responsible tourism lens measures the impact of cruise tourism and, with its focus on the perceptions of host communities, more effectively addresses grassroots concerns. Case examples are used to identify and describe challenges faced by governments, communities, and the cruise industry. Analysis of these issues and challenges gives direction for how cruise tourism can grow in ways that are both sustainable and responsible.

Incidents of sexual assault and sexual victimization are significantly more common on cruise ships than on land. Analysis of data from three major cruise lines, comprising more than 50% of the North American-based cruise industry, reveals that perpetrators are most often male crewmembers, victims are most often female passengers (over 17.5% younger than age 18), and that the assaults occur almost anywhere, though most frequently in passenger cabins. This article examines factors that may be related to the incidence of sexual assaults on cruise ships and concludes with a discussion of the steps cruise lines can take to address the problem.

The cruise sector promotes itself as a responsible steward of the ocean environment and claims its policies and practices protect the marine ecology. As such, it would argue that its activities do not significantly contribute to global warming and climate change. However, there is disconnect between what the cruise sector says it does and what cruiseships actually do in relation to the environment. This chapter looks at the sector's environmental practices and how it contributes to climate change. This is both directly through greenhouse gases and indirectly through degradation of the marine environment, as well as the prospects for the sector to voluntarily take responsibility for its part of the problem. Despite a poor record on voluntary efforts, the chapter calls on the cruise sector to embrace initiatives that bring its behavior in line with its public pronouncements about environmental responsibility.

Based on a case study of environmental organizations' confrontation of the cruise industry over environmental practices, this article critically assesses several campaigns and actions by the environmental movement as represented by several key organizations that focus specifically on the cruise industry, and at the social and political processes used by the cruise industry to deal with these organizations. Five environmental groups are included in the case study; the cruise industry is represented by the three major cruise corporations ( comprising more than 90% of the North American and European market), their marketing agents and lobbyists. Strategies used by environmental organizations and by the cruise industry are identified and analysis seeks to explain factors associated with the effectiveness or non- effectiveness of these strategies.

Based on a case study of environmental organizations’ confrontation of the cruise industry over environmental practices, this article critically assesses several campaigns and actions by the environmental movement as represented by several key organizations that focus specifically on the cruise industry, and at the social and political processes used by the cruise industry to deal with these organizations. Five environmental groups are included in the case study; the cruise industry is represented by the three major cruise corporations (comprising more than 90% of the North American and European market), their marketing agents and lobbyists. Strategies used by environmental organizations and by the cruise industry are identified and analysis seeks to explain factors associated with the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of these strategies.

Cruising is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Attracting over 12 million passengers a year, cruise ship companies are merging to become behemoths. And cruise ships themselves have swollen dramatically in size, now sometimes carrying over 5000 people on board. Not surprisingly, this growth is causing huge problems - problems that the industry would rather not acknowledge, and the potential cruiser would have a hard time discovering. This book reveals the dark under side of this industry. Author Ross Klein first examines the contrast between passenger expectations of luxury and romance fostered by rosy advertising, and the seedier reality of meals, accommodations and facilities on board. He then: explodes the myth of the cruise as an all-inclusive vacation, demonstrating that the industry's expectation is to generate an additional 0+ per day per person; examines cruise ship safety, ringing the alarm about accidents at sea, passenger security (including the incidence of sexual assault), on-board illnesses, and medical services; juxtaposes the industry's environmentally friendly image against its actual behaviour and the difficulties of effective regulation; exposes the workers' experience in these 'sweatshops at sea'; and finally contrasts the industry's consumer-friendly facade with its attitude that 'everything would run smoothly if it were not for the passengers'.