Who will benefit? Not Jacksonville.

I understand that many of you are concerned with what might happen to Mayport if a cruise terminal is not built.  The economy is struggling and on first glance it appears that a cruise terminal might provide some relief to an area that needs help.  On further consideration however it becomes clear that other viable options are available right now, and indeed, some of them have already begun.  Eco-tourism is just one of those options.

Since the 1990s ecotourism has grown by 20%-34% every year, and since 2004, it has grown 3 times faster than tourism as a whole, which includes cruise lines.  And whereas regular tourism's growth is projected to remain flat, ecotourism, which includes nature, heritage, cultural, and community tourism, is expected to grow the most quickly over the next twenty years.  Now the cruise line will tell you that it can turn a profit, well that's true, but that money will not help Mayport or even Jacksonville.  80% of the money spent on regular tourism goes to airlines, hotels, and other non-local companies, whereas ecotourism, which hires and purchases locally, puts a higher percentage, sometimes 95%, of the revenue into the local economy.  So if the economy of Mayport and Jacksonville is your concern, a cruise terminal is not the answer.  The answer lies in a solution that has already been presented to the city by the citizens of Mayport.

Through a grant from DEP, Mayport and the City of Jacksonville have already spent $4,900,000 on improvements, plans, and studies to make Mayport a destination for tourists seeking nature, cultural heritage, and one of the oldest communities in the United States.  If the cruise terminal is approved all of this money and work will be wasted, and it will be replaced with a plan that is expected to experience no economic growth.

Now some may look at the 4.9 million that the city has already spent in Mayport and argue that the situation has not improved as evidenced by the blight one sees while driving through its streets.  While I take issue with such an argument I would nevertheless offer that many, if not all, of the "blighted" areas in Mayport are actually owned three companies, and they all stand to gain from the existence of blight because it allows for condemnation proceedings, drives market prices down, and all-in-all makes it easier for the cruise terminal to come in.

Mayport will never again be what it once was, this is the sad reality.  But we are now presented with the special opportunity to determine what it will become.  Even if you put aside for a moment the disastrous environmental affects of a cruise line that will spew emissions into the air, threaten our precious manatees, and introduce exotic invasive plant and animal species every time it comes to port, the economics of the cruise terminal just don't add up.