The Mayor of Nice has announced plans to block large cruise ships from calling at major ports along the French Riviera, including Villefranche-sur-Mer.
Christian Estrosi has told French media he will seek a decree banning ships more than 190 metres long and carrying more than 900 passengers.
The Mayor, who is also President of the Nice-Cote d’Azur region, which includes Villefranche-sur Mer, wants the ban to take affect from 1 July 2025.
If he wins support to push through the decree, it could affect thousands of cruise passengers this summer.
In July alone, several cruise ships carrying more than 900 passengers are due to call at Villefranche-sur-Mer, the nearest major cruise port to Nice.
These include Fred. Olsen’s Bolette, Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas, Explora Journey’s Explora II, Marella Discovery, Celebrity Equinox and Cunard’s Queen Victoria.
In August, several of the above are due to call again at Villefranche-sur-Mer, plus Celebrity Ascent, and Celebrity Apex and Royal’s Explorer of the Seas will also stop there.
Describing large cruise ships as ‘floating cities’, Mr Estrosi reportedly told French media: “Cruises that pollute, that dump their low-cost clientele who consume nothing but leave their waste behind…these cruises have no place here.”
However, his proposed decree will require collaboration with officials from neighbouring municipalities, and it has already met opposition from other local politicians who are concerned at the loss of income from thousands of cruise passengers.
The Mayor of nearby Cannes David Lisnard has toyed with a similar ban, but instead introduced restrictions on the most polluting ships in 2019.
The call for an outright ban on large cruise ships by Nice’s Mayor follows a similar ban imposed in Venice.
“Venice has regained its beauty and its landscape by having a mayor who definitively refuses cruises. We intend to go in this direction, too,” Mr Estrosi reportedly told French press.
