“If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium”
Massive cruise ships, usually taller than the unique medieval City Walls of Dubrovnik, have turned into enemies of the local population, especially in the three most popular ports in the Mediterranean, i.e. Dubrovnik, Venice and Barcelona. Much has been written on the subject, projects and studies have been made, even UNESCO got involved. And the local common people can rebel locally, blame their mayors and local authorities, organise protests, use all the four letter words they can think of and wave their index fingers toward those floating towns, but they still cannot get to the closest bakery before lunchtime.
How much do those ship owners actually care for anything else than sheer profit? Do they care about pollution they cause at every port, for instance? Do they care about their clients?
Does not seem they do, and here is a shameful example for it:
Dubrovnik City Walls, June 14th, 2017.
A local shop owner is approached by a middle aged couple, kindly asking if he could help them locate a picturesque little bay somewhere in Dubrovnik. They were looking for it, but could not find it. So they show him the brochure they got on their ship, with a large photo clearly denoted as “Dubrovnik”. The shop owner’s jaw drops. Yes, he has been there, but this place is in – Italy.
This is not a scandal. It is much more than a shameful superficiality and a most absolute disrespect both to the passengers and the “destination” from which they make tons of money. Their publicity bursts with a million of impeccable services on board, from food, shops, swimming pools, cinemas, panoramas and what not. The one thing that does not matter is what city you are in. Who cares!
That hilarious comedy “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Belgium!” came out in 1969 but seems to have found a new life with the organisers of the nameless masses floating on the sea.
