**Author details**

*Tourism*

**3. Conclusion**

governed by international conventions such as:

as modified in 1978 (MARPOL 73/78)

environmental sustainability a concern of the past.

**Acknowledgements**

destination stewardship and sustainable tourism [24, 25]. Over the past five years, the major cruise lines have spent an average of US\$2 million dollars per ship in order to upgrade vessels with better systems for dealing with waste management and emissions. Decades ago, the cruise industry paid very little attention to the environment. Today cruise lines have made a 180 degree turn. They are now spending large amounts of time and money cleaning up their act, and in essence are helping to bring sustainable practices to a wider group of players in the travel industry [27, 29].

In investigating the impact of the cruise shipping industry, it is interesting to note that its educational value is immense. There are several theories relating to the sustainability of the marine environment. Nonetheless, this cannot be attained unless users of the marine ecology make it a top priority. The cruise industry provides an efficient global network for the supply chain. With that being said, we must be cognizant of the fact that there is a great need to strive toward sustainable development; that each dimension (social, economic and environmental) must work in unison. While the marine environment continues to play a vital role in our food security and coastal protection, the cruise ship industry must and in many cases have taken necessary mitigating steps to protect the environment on which it also depends. The operations of vessels and hence environmental sustainability are

a.The International Maritime Organization – is the United Nations specialized agency with responsibility for the safety and security of shipping and the

prevention of marine and atmospheric pollution by ships (IMO)

b.The Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty (UNCLOS)

c.The international treaty for the prevention of pollution from ships, 1973,

In the final analysis, this chapter gives a clearer understanding as to how the cruise shipping industry impact environmental sustainability. However, this chapter is limited to the fact that a larger per cent of the information garnered is over five years old. It is therefore, the desire of the researcher to pursue future studies in the area by the analysis of primary data. The outcomes of such study will assist policy/ decision makers both public and private to establish and implement plans that will

I would like to say thanks to God Almighty for His physical and Spiritual strength. Thanks to my wife Juliet and daughter Kristen for their continuous sup-

port and to my final year students who assisted me with information.

**96**

Kirkland Robert Anderson Economics, Management and Finance, Caribbean Maritime University, Kingston Jamaica, West Indies

\*Address all correspondence to: kanderson@cmu.edu.jm

© 2020 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
