French Polynesia has announced that the South Seas destination will be placing capacity limits on cruise ships calling to the Islands of Tahiti due to overcrowding, among other reasons.
Beginning 01JAN 2022, French Polynesia will implement the following measures:
- Favour year-round turnaround ships based in the destination with small and medium capacities of up to 700 passengers;
- Allow turnaround ships, in transpacific repositioning, of up to 2,500 passengers;
- Limit ship capacity for transpacific cruises for up to 3,500 passengers;
- Assign Tahiti, Moorea and Raiatea as the preferred islands for these large capacity ships to call;
- Turn away very large capacity ships (over 3,500 pax) from stopovers; and
- Limit the number of passengers in Bora Bora to 1,200 per day to preserve the island's nature and atmosphere.
Some exceptions to these rules may be granted to to vessels of higher capacity in technical transit on the islands of Tahiti, Moorea and Raiatea.
According to the Presidency of French Polynesia, this positioning is the result of its vision of sustainable and inclusive development integrated into the 2021-2023 recovery plan for the destination as well as in the tourism development strategy, "Fari’ira’a Manihini 2025."
Part of this decision is due to the strain large cruise ships put on the destination's ecosystem, particularly in the remote islands of French Polynesia. The statement also notes that large capacity cruise ships of over 3,500 passengers are not suited for the destination, both in terms of capacity and ship size.
In 2016, French Polynesia reached a thousand annual calls, maintaining an average number of less than 500 passengers per call. Over the past 10 years, it has also doubled the number of turnaround cruises.
In 2019, cruises represented a quarter of the destination's tourism revenue and a third of visitors (60,000 excursionists + 40,000 cruise passengers).
COVID-19 has also affected French Polynesia's tourism sector, and in order to recover while also preserving its ecosystem, the Islands of Tahiti is set to implement greater regulations for visitor flow to the destination. The government authorities of French Polynesia are working to develop a framework for managing cruise calls in its waters via a single portal.
For more information, visit Tahiti Tourism on its web site.
