The global cruise industry has come under increased scrutiny in the last few years, mainly due to their excessive emissions, waste and impact on fragile coastal and marine ecosystems.
Cruising is still one of the most carbon-intensive forms of tourism, usually heavily dependent on both mass consumption and fuel oil.
However, Norway is now exploring different ways of reducing cruising’s carbon emissions through smaller vessels, and strengthened regulatory support, including strict zero-emissions requirements for passenger ships entering World Heritage fjords like Nærøyfjord and Geirangerfjord.
This has led to the rise of a new way of cruising: microcruising, which offers expedition-style, low-impact itineraries on small ships and allows travellers to experience slower, more immersive and eco-friendly journeys.
“The important metric to understand is how many resources are consumed and how much waste and emissions are generated per passenger,” Lars Jacob Tynes Pedersen, co-head of the Centre for Sustainable Business at NHH- Norwegian School of Economics, said.
He added: “A combination of microcruise and sustainable traditional cruise ships could provide a balanced solution, allowing for both intimate travel experiences and mass-market tourism without sacrificing sustainability.”
Why Microcruises Are Often More Eco-Friendly
One of the biggest advantages of microcruises is unsurprisingly their size. Most of these cruises carry anywhere between 10 to 50 passengers, with some having even fewer.
They avoid the “floating city” or “floating hotel complexes” model that several traditional cruise lines have leaned into in the last few years, with fewer entertainment venues, restaurants and other energy-intensive amenities.
This heavily reduces emissions per journey, despite not always reducing emissions per capita, due to cruise ships still requiring a baseline amount of energy to sail.
“Large ships require massive infrastructure, and dump thousands of people into one spot at once. Micro-cruises or sailing yachts can quietly slip into small harbors and support local villages that actually need the business, without overwhelming the very environment people are coming to see,” Christian Schmidt, chief experience officer at Norrøna, told Forbes in an email.
He also noted that another sustainable win for smaller cruise operators is the ability to refurbish existing vessels, avoiding the massive environmental cost of new construction.
By being able to enter narrow fjords and small harbours much more easily, they greatly reduce the need for dredging, large scale port infrastructure, and tender boats, while lowering port congestion too.
Some Norwegian microcruises are not just for tourism either. Unlike conventional cruises which travel long distances mainly for leisure and stop only briefly at ports to offload tourists, key Norwegian routes like Bergen-Kirkenes serve multiple functions at once.
Along with visitors, they also carry residents, cargo and supplies, while connecting very remote towns and isolated communities. This helps support tourism, as well as regional economies and local logistics.
The Technology Edge: How Norway Is Decarbonising Small Ships
In recent years, Norway has been using microcruises as testbeds for next-generation maritime technology. Due to them being small and adaptable, they are usually ideal for piloting new technologies that would be difficult to retrofit onto mega ships.
One of the key technologies being implemented is hybrid-electric propulsion.
“Small expedition cruise lines, such as Brim Explorer, are using hybrid and electric propulsion to reduce CO2 emissions. They also incorporate energy-efficient systems and advanced waste management, ensuring minimal environmental impact while operating in pristine Norwegian fjords,” Pedersen highlighted.
Similarly, ships from operators like Havila are using LNG and large battery systems for emission-free sailing in sensitive fjords for a set period of time.
This helps improve fuel efficiency and reduces noise, with ships using the combustion engine for longer distances and the electric motor for low-speed maneuvering.
Projects like Hurtigruten’s Sea Zero are also attempting to design and launch the world’s most energy-efficient zero-emission cruise ship by 2030. This will potentially reduce overall energy consumption by 40% to 50%, compared to current vessels.
The company is planning to use renewable energy like solar-powered retractable sails, along with sophisticated efficiency measures like contra-rotating propellers and air lubrication.
Smaller operators like Norrøna are also implementing vessel-level energy efficiencies.
“We run on 37kWh lithium battery banks for efficient energy consumption and use a 100 L/h watermaker to ensure we’re using water responsibly,” Schmidt explained.
He continued: “For heating, we use a 24kW Kabola central system that supports radiators in all rooms. It’s a smart setup because it doubles as a flow-through heater – it only heats water the moment someone turns on a tap.”
The company has also added two defrosters to the system to provide hot air and keep the windows clear without wasting extra energy.
Other Norwegian microcruising operators like Secret Atlas and PolarQuest use AI-assisted tools for route planning, to avoid congestion on popular Arctic routes, especially during high season. Digital scheduling tools like Arctic expedition coordination platforms help reduce congestion and ecological impact too.
Norway also has one of the world’s most renewable-heavy power grids, which allows ships to easily recharge with low lifecycle emissions.
In recent years, companies have also been investing more in exploring the use of emerging fuels like biogas, hydrogen and other synthetic fuels, in order to transition away from LNG.
The Trade-Offs: What’s Holding Microcruises Back?
Despite the range of environmental benefits microcruises bring, they still face a number of hurdles, preventing them from becoming more mainstream.
Key amongst these is not being able to access economies of scale, due to their limited passenger numbers and small vessel sizes. This leads to higher costs per passenger, making tickets more expensive and reducing accessibility for many travellers.
It also includes toeing a fine line between delivering a premium adventure and setting a price point that remains inclusive and accessible.
The operational side of things presents significant challenges as well.
“A large cruise ship benefits from global supply networks and massive standing teams for everything from maintenance to catering. For us, the administration and coordination behind the scenes – from talking to individual food suppliers to hand-picking the right guides for our guests – is handled entirely by hand,” Schmidt explained.
This need for self-reliance can often be most pronounced when things go wrong.
“Unlike large operators who have stand-by support partners if something needs fixing, we don’t have the luxury of calling in a large corporation to solve a problem. We rely on our own agility and preparation,” Schmidt added.
Technology costs contribute to this situation as well, due to hybrid and electric systems often requiring major upfront investments. In many cases, the return on investment can be uncertain for a few years as well, as demand and market factors are assessed.
Similarly, outside of key ports, charging and shore power availability can be limited too, which can restrict some routes and types of ships. Transitioning to LNG can also be tricky, as while emissions are reduced, new methane leakage concerns may emerge.
“While microcruise ships might be more sustainable, their limited passenger capacity means they likely cannot serve the mass market. To address the growing demand for eco-friendly travel, the solution may lie in combining the sustainable practices of microcruise with the large-scale capacity of traditional cruise ships,” Pederson noted.
Rethinking The Future of Cruising
Norway’s microcruising industry currently works precisely because it strikes a delicate balance between technology, regulation and restraint. It also challenges the widespread assumption that cruising automatically has to mean mass tourism.
As such, it is sustainable partly because it is niche and in many cases, at a price point above what most travellers are willing to pay. By scaling too quickly, it also risks creating the same pressures as mass tourism.
The real test by the end of the decade will be whether Norway’s small-ship cruising model can be applied at scale without losing its integrity, instead of just building bigger ships with cleaner engines.
