As I was passing the Ocean Terminal one day, I overheard a group of American tourists negotiating with a taxi driver for a trip to take them on a drive around central Scotland.

This appears to support a cruise tourist industry figure of £700 spent by passengers when in port.

It also questions whether local businesses are getting ‘the full benefit of cruise passengers’.

As this was the aspiration expressed by our MP on his visit to the Regal Princess a few days ago, (Telegraph, August 3).

I was glad to see that the other side of this unbalanced equation was not being ignored.

Our MSP is alert to the environmental impact of the cruise market. If the ‘industry is seriously listening to calls…for improvement’, that is good news.

However, many environmentalists would challenge his statement.

Take one example, everyone would agree that making ‘zero emission’ onshore power available instead of ships running their engines and polluting the local environment is a good idea.

An investigation at Southampton in 2023 found that cruise ships docking in the port regularly failed to use onshore power.

Stuart is correct that progress is being made.

Research like this illustrates that the industry will require regular monitoring and even compulsion to maintain that progress.

Friends of the Earth Cruise Ship Report Card, carried out in 2022, monitored all the cruise firms for progress on sewage treatment, water pollution, and water quality compliance.

Many failed, and none gained a better grade than C plus.

Interestingly, Princess Cruises, the owner of the Regal Princess, gained a D overall and an F for transparency. Perhaps they have improved since then.

Our elected politicians need to be alert to a business that is not benign. The interest is in profit.

The need for faster progress from an industry that can annually release 2.2million cars worth of CO2 emissions from just one ship in pursuit of this profit is inescapable.

John Moody, 

Address supplied