Cruise travel conjurs up many images of the days of ocean-going steamers, luxurious liners and the exclusive life of the traveller in the early part of the 20th century. But the cruise liners, over the past 20 years, have responded to a growth in demand by developing larger vessels and promoting another mass industry. The impact of cruise line business in many destinations has left lucrative economic returns for the politician and the businessperson but has led to negative reactions among the host communities. Most of us have seen the scenes of protests in Barcelona and Venice in the summer of 2018 and 2019. Yet the cruise line business has the potential to become a quality activity that could attract visitors to a destination for more sustainable reasons other than the stereotypical leisure industry - it can attract those traveller-tourists who are looking for adventure, culture and community-based experiences. In a recent article (Wired.co.uk, 17 August), the emphasis was on how cruise companies are re-adjusting to the new reality of a post-COVID travel and tourism experience but there is still the issue here of attracting the visitor, the tourist back to a safe and responsible activity. Cruise travel has, very probably, been marred by the incidents of COVID that broke out between February and March this year.  Maybe this is another opportunity to rethink the strategy and policy for cruise line business now and in the future, once it is safe and responsible to experience tourism as that experience of adventure, culture and intercultural dialogue and not simply as a form of "escapism" from the lockdowns of April and June! In the same article, Freya Higgins Desboilles emphasises that "COVID-19 exposed a lot about the cruise sector that before had remained largely unknown. The lack of paying taxes, the offshore incorporations, the dangers of viral contagion and the possibility to be locked in your cabin. COVID-19 showed that communities are willing to block tourists' access when they fear contagion".

My theory of reflecting, rethinking and redeveloping (or, alternatively - reflecting, redeveloping and restoring) tourism activity means that, given the global shutdown, we should be learning how to manage tourism sustainably and adding value to the visitor experience. Adding value means we should be attracting quality traveller-tourists instead of the quantitative mass tourists that have blighted many of the Mediterranean destinations and resorts; adding value means that we should be planning tourism through long-term strategies besides the intermittent short-term (five-year) plans; adding value means that we need to be innovative by using the integrated approach for tourism planning and including the host community in a continuous and consistent process.

By adding value to the traveller-tourist as part of a cruise programme, we should work on a regional rather than a national strategy that will enhance the Mediterranean basin through its diversity in culture, character and visitor-local interaction. We need to attract boutique cruises to the Mediterranean rather than the mammoth vessels that have negative impacts on the marine and air environment. For such a strategy to be successful it needs three key words - Commitment, Trust and Synergy. Commitment among the three key stakeholders in all destinations (the authorities, the local community and the businesses); it needs trust to be built between the stakeholders through a consistent process of consultation and it needs synergy so that all stakeholders can exchange ideas, knowledge and monitoring plans and strategies. Is this Utopia? It could remain a Utopian dream if we will insist in opening up tourism simply as a means to satisfy those short-termists - the businesses and the politicians.  Tourism must be built on two qualities - Hospitality and Service - which can add real value to a discerning quality visitor who wants to be at a destination rather than the one who happens to be there because of the price and availability.

If we want cruise line business to open up, like tourism, then we must manage this form of travel sustainably and responsibly - numbers are not the ideal way of measuring success for tourism but visitor satisfaction is a better way of ensuring a destination builds a strong basis for goodwill.