This summer, more than 100 cruise ships will visit the small city of Portland, Maine, dropping thousands of passengers onto the city’s commercial waterfront for lobster rolls, local souvenirs and a quintessential New England experience.
But as Portland has rapidly become a landmark destination for cruise lines, a group of activists are calling into question the long held narrative that cruise ships provide a dependable economic boom.
Producer Marina Henke spent the months leading up to the 2025 cruise season charting these muddy waters. For small coastal cities like Portland, are cruise ships really the economic generator that the industry claims them to be?
Featuring JoAnn Loctov, Jack Humeniuk, Joe Redman, Jacques de Villier, Zach Rand, Brian Fournier, Kevin Rodriquez, Martha Honey, and Dan Kraus.
A full transcript of this episode is available here.
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Martha Honey is the co-founder of the Center for Responsible Travel. She’s the editor of the book “Cruise Tourism in the Caribbean: Selling Sunshine” which includes much of her own research on the economics of cruise ships.
You can find Portland Cruise Control on Bluesky or at their website, portlandcruisecontrolmaine.org.
To learn more about the increase of exhaust gas cleaning systems ("scrubbers") among ships check out this report done by the International Council on Clean Transportation. And, an updated list of scrubber wash bans by country or state lives here.
In 2019, Colin Woodward published “Pier Pressure,” a three-part series out of The Portland Press Herald documenting the rise of the cruise industry across Maine.
Are you a Portland local? You can see a schedule of all cruise ship arrivals at maine.portcall.com
Portland is not the only city to face rapid cruise growth. Check out Cruise Boom, a PBS documentary focused on cruise politics in Sitka, Alaska.
SUPPORT
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CREDITS
Host: Nate Hegyi
Reported, produced, and mixed by Marina Henke
Editing by Taylor Quimby
Our staff also includes Justine Paradis and Felix Poon
Executive producer: Taylor Quimby
Rebecca Lavoie is NHPR’s Director of On-Demand Audio
Music by Blue Dot sessions, El Flaco Collective and Matt Large.
Special thanks to Thomas Trott, Greg Gordon, Kevin Ward, Matthew Day, Ethan Hipple and Sarah Flink.
Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio
