Mass-tourism caused by cruise ships in Tallinn: Reaching for a sustainable way of cruise ship tourism in Tallinn on a social and economic level

Although nowadays cruise tourism is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a booming part of the tourism sector, especially in the relatively new destination of Tallinn in Estonia. During the last few decades, tourism in Estonia grew rapidly, including its cruise tourism sector. In mainstream media the impacts cruise tourism has on destinations are mostly limited to mass-tourism and over-tourism, but the impacts are more than the quantity of disembarking passengers. It provides employment and income and it leads to innovation. However, it could also impact a destination in a negative way. Not only by huge numbers of disembarking passengers but also via congestions on roads, an increase in criminal incidents or Disneyfication. This means that cruise tourism has an impact on various dimensions and aspects. As this part of the tourism industry is a sector that keeps growing, it is necessary to guide it in the right direction and to make sure that the negative impacts do not exceed the positive impacts. Therefore, the concept of sustainable tourism has been introduced which aims to maintain or improve the tourism sector at a destination in such a way that it is sustainable for all stakeholders at the social, economic and environmental level. In this thesis, this concept of sustainable tourism is the central point. Related to this concept is the framework of indicators that could show how sustainable cruise tourism is at a particular destination. The framework in this thesis distinguishes two dimensions: the social and the economic. Each dimension contains several indicators, varying from local income to passengers’ spending and from community restrictions to health and wellbeing. These fifteen indicators are operationalized and used to research the sustainability of Tallinn’s cruise tourism. The thesis makes uses of three data collection methods: literature review, interviews and observation. The points of view from the various stakeholders (visitors, industry and hosting community) have been taken into account and are represented. Via the collected data the current state of sustainability of the cruise tourism industry in Tallinn has been investigated. Furthermore, it became possible to research how this industry could be improved and how it could become (more) sustainable. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the cruise tourism industry in Tallinn is relatively sustainable: the economic benefits are present and many people work in the tourism industry, whether or not temporary. The downside of cruise tourism is apparent as well, though this is mainly related to the amount of disembarking passengers. The ratio of residents who live in the touristic area to cruise passengers is developing negatively and at this moment, this is the biggest threat that Tallinn faces. To solve this, the stakeholders of the cruise tourism industry should cooperate and focus on spreading of the cruise passengers. This can be done by spreading the cruise passengers across the city during their disembarking, but also by reconsidering the cruise arrival schedule. To conclude, to tackle the few negative impacts of cruise tourism in Tallinn, one should focus on cooperation. By doing that, the cruise tourism industry in Tallinn will stay an import sector in the economy of the city.