Cruise ship by Pete Markham

However up until recently the cruise industry didn’t really pay any attention to these reports, which as a result meant that cruise ships are still extremely harmful to the environment. But over the past few years ecotourism has become increasingly popular. How environmentally friendly a holiday is, is now becoming a larger factor for people deciding what they want to do for their holiday. As a result the cruise industry has finally began to make some changes in order to become more sustainable.

But what steps can/are cruise ships taking in order to become more sustainable?

Modify The Engine

Some cruise lines, such as Holland America and Princess Cruises, have modified the engines on some of their ships so that they can use onshore Hydroelectric power stations whilst they are at ports. This step is a little technical but it does mean that they can use a cleaner source of energy for the time that they stay at a port.

Order An Appropriate Amount Of Food

Each day, thousands of meals are served onboard a cruise ship. All the leftover food is thrown away, usually straight into the sea. Cruise ships could plan more carefully how much food they will actually need in order to reduce the amount of food being thrown away. Some cruise lines for example Windstar Cruises have already begun to do this.

Alter Cruising Speeds

This is an extremely simple step that cruise ships could make. Just by lowering the cruising speed by a few knots-per-hour a lot of fuel can be saved. This is both good for the environment as less harmful gases are released into the atmosphere, and good for the cruise line as they can save money from reduced fuel costs.

Install Underfloor Heating

Heating doesn’t come cheap onboard a cruise ship as there are a lot of people who need keeping warm. Installing underfloor heating instead of using a traditional central heating system would be much more sustainable. This is because it would use far less fuel, it would be more effective as less heat would be lost and it could be setup to only turn on when people are present in a room.

Process Their Own Waste

Most cruise ships simply eject their waste directly into the ocean. This isn’t the only solution to the problem of waste on board. It is possible for cruise ships to process their own waste meaning that nothing has to be dumped into the ocean.

Install Low Flow Water Systems

The Friends of the Earth report stated that 1 million gallons of water were wasted on cruise ships from sinks, baths, toilets and showers. By installing low flow water systems for all of these a large amount of water can be saved. These systems work by releasing less water when they are used. The amount won’t be noticeable to passengers and installing them would make a huge difference.

All of these suggestions are things that cruise lines could easily do. Implementing them would be better for the environment and better for the cruise lines themselves as it would save them a lot of money. As ecotourism becomes even more popular it is likely that we are going to see a lot of these changes being made onboard cruise ships.

Guest post by contributing author Linda, writing on behalf of UFH1 in this instance. For more information on underfloor heating, visit their website!

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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy of government with the current king Carl XVI Gustaf. The country has highly developed economy. The capital city is Stockholm, which has about 800,000 inhabitants. The whole kingdom covers 449,964 km² with approximately 9,856,000 inhabitants (of which about 1.5 million are immigrants). The largest cities after Stockholm are Göteborg, Malmö and Uppsala. Three main areas of Sweden, basically corresponding to the southern, central and northern parts of the country are Götaland (south), Svealand (central part) and Norrland (north).

The best time for visiting Sweden is Winter or Summer when you can see the polar night (in Winter) and have the daylight only for a few hours, or polar day (in Summer) with the sun above you almost for 24 hours.

Typical cuisine is Smorgåsbord (a buffet of savoury delicacies), Baltic herring, pea soup and pancakes.

Among the best know people from Sweden you will find actress Greta Garbo or music group ABBA.

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Slovakia is a member state of NATO, UN, OECD, WTO, UNESCO and other international organizations and joined European union in 2004. They have replaced their currency Slovak crown with Euro in January 2009.

The traditional products of Slovakia:
Bryndza – sheep’s-milk cheese that is used mainly for the traditional meal Bryndzové halušky (potato dumplings with sheep’s-milk cheese).
Tokaj wine – the sweet white wine

Main tourist destinations are the highest mountain range in Slovakia – High Tatras National Park and the national park in the heart of Slovakia – Slovak Paradise National Park. The country’s major rivers are the Danube and Vah. The High Tatras National Park has over 90 lakes. There are 12 major caves in Slovakia that you can visit.

View Slovakia – little big country in a larger map

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