Reconsidering Waterfront Regeneration and Cruise Tourism in Hamburg, Germany

Written accounts of cultural festivals often deal with the various activities that comprise those types of events. There is a paucity of analyses that discuss how festivals encourage the status quo of consumption practices, while conjuring their hidden costs on society. This paper analyses how the Hamburg Cruise Days Festival attempted to perpetuate the status quo of the cruising industry. The research answers the following question: What would it take to help change the current “cobalt” color promoted by the organizers of the Hamburg’s Waterfront Cruise Days Festival to a “True Blue”, a symbol of the cleanest sky and harbor waters in Germany, and the best example of sustainable Green and Blue Infrastructure in Europe? The research methods comprised in loco fieldwork participant observation in the tradition of participatory action research. It is argued that, from a governance perspective, festival organizers ought to be required to disclaim, in the fashion of “truth in advertising”, the ecological impacts and sponsors’ progress toward reaching existing environmental standards to eradicate costly social and environmental injustices. Said practice will increase our individual and collective awareness of the invaluable richness of the world’s land- and water-based environment before it is irreplaceably exhausted. The article suggests extending events’ emphasis on sustainable tourism to also encompass three additional measures: (i) the socio-ecological performance of the cruise (and shipping) industry; (ii) in the fashion of a Solomonic approach to justice; and (iii) within a formalized Porto of Call Sister Cities Network.