News Article

“After what we’ve heard today, I can’t imagine why any community would want to be a cruise port.” So spoke Gustavo Arroz, president of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, ICOMOS, which seeks to protect historic and archaeological sites around the world.

What we had heard last Thursday, February 7, were mostly negative findings and opinions about the effects of large cruise ships on historic ports. The three-day international “Harboring Tourism” symposium was turning out to be a cruise-line roast. That wasn’t the original plan. The World Monuments Fund (WMF) had convened the 150 or so attendees with support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Preservation Society of Charleston, host of the conference. WMF didn’t want it to be a roast, but an apparent boycott by most pro-cruise invitees left it that way.