Not so Nice: This cruise destination is cracking down on big-ship calls

Update: Nice has since backtracked on its stance, revising the ban to say that larger ships carrying up to 2,500 people will be able to disembark passengers at Villefranche-sur-Mer only. Vessels of that size will be limited to no more than one at a time.

Late last week, Nice, France, became the latest cruise destination to place restrictions on ships, with the goal of limiting the size of vessels that visit the picturesque resort city along the Cote d'Azur.

Beginning July 1, ships carrying more than 900 people will not be permitted to disembark passengers in Nice or the neighboring port of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

This and similar measures are part of a trend that, in recent years, has aimed to help popular tourist destinations cut down on the number of cruise passengers.

"I don't want floating hotels to drop anchor in front of Nice," said Christian Estrosi, Nice's mayor, during an announcement about the restrictions, as translated from an article that appeared in local newspaper Nice-Matin on Jan. 24. "As for cruises that pollute, that dump their low-cost clientele who consume nothing, but leave their waste behind them, well, I say it: These cruises have no place here."

The Cruise Lines International Association — an organization that represents the collective interests of the cruise industry — said in a statement to TPG that it's surprised by the decision, given that no large ships were actually scheduled to call on Nice in 2025. Only small vessels are able to come into the harbor in Nice; larger ones must head to Villefranche-sur-Mer, the port for Nice, about 4 miles away. Just three large ships and 34 medium-sized ships are due to call on Villefranche-sur-Mer in 2025.

The CLIA also said the ban and others like it "only serve to stigmatize the cruise industry."

However, on average, each cruise passenger spends far less — only about $40 per day — than other visitors to Nice, according to local chamber of commerce statistics reported by The Telegraph, making them less desirable visitors in terms of revenue.

Nice joins a laundry list of other popular cruise destinations that have enacted regulations to scale back on the number of cruisers who visit. They include Amsterdam; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Mykonos and Santorini in Greece; Key West, Florida; and Venice, which largely led the charge on banning megaships in downtown city locations.

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In other regions where cruises are popular, some destinations have decided to implement passenger taxes instead of or in addition to imposing limits on the number or size of ships that visit.

Although the capital city of Juneau only recently enacted restrictions on ship size, Alaska ports have, for years, charged per-passenger head taxes on cruisers.

Two countries, Iceland and Mexico, also recently increased existing tourist taxes and expanded them to include cruise passengers — even those who don't go ashore in port. In early 2025, Iceland switched what previously was a $7 per-person fee for overnight guests in the country to an $18 per-visit (or, for cruise passengers, per-port) fee, even though cruisers stay on their ships at night instead of on land.

In late 2024, Mexico voted to raise an existing tourist tax from $35 to $42 and begin charging cruise passengers, who were previously exempt. After pressure from cruise lines, collection of the new fees — which was supposed to have gone into effect at the beginning of 2025 — will be delayed until midyear.

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