Cruise Lines Pursue Greener Journeys Ahead of New Climate Rules
As tourists flock to ships and strain port cities, companies are pushed to invest in cleaner tech
4 min
AMSTERDAM—The global cruise industry is trying to go green ahead of a wave of new climate rules. Getting it done involves managing high costs, a dearth of renewable fuel and pressure from regulators and environmental groups.
Cruise operators are buying new ships that can run on alternative fuels, redesigning hulls to move more efficiently through the water and adding electricity hookups for when their ships are at port, where they otherwise might pump out toxic exhaust.
Carnival, the world’s biggest cruise company, has equipped more than half of its fleet to plug into local power grids when docked. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings have ships on order that the companies say will be able to run on methanol. MSC Cruises uses a digital platform to analyse weather, fuel consumption and other data to optimise its ships’ efficiency.
The companies are preparing for new rules that will require them to pay for some of their emissions and meet new targets in transitioning to cleaner fuels. They also expect that global regulations could tighten further. Cruise lines, like other parts of the shipping industry, are pushed to act quickly and thoroughly because ships that are ordered today are likely to be in operation for decades.
“We build ships now that last 40 years,” said Torstein Hagen, chairman of cruise company Viking, which has ships on order that will be equipped to use renewable hydrogen. “We’d better get it right.”
Complicating the industry’s investments is the high cost of building and fuelling eco-friendly ships after some cruise operators racked up billions of dollars in debt during the pandemic. Cleaner renewable fuels are expensive and aren’t yet available or used in large quantities. Just 34 of the world’s ocean-cruise ports—roughly 2%—have electrical hookups, according to industry figures.
The number of passengers taking oceangoing cruises is expected to jump this year to more than 31 million, according to industry group Cruise Lines International Association, up from about 20 million last year and about 6% above 2019 levels, before the pandemic largely shut down the industry.
That revival has put renewed pressure on port cities, as some seek limits on visits by cruise ships, and added to concerns from environmentalists about the industry’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.
Although cruise ships are responsible for a tiny portion of overall human-caused greenhouse-gas emissions, their onboard services contribute to higher emissions on average compared with cargo ships, according to industry estimates.
Cruises are also discretionary—nobody must go on a cruise—a point that environmentalists raise in their calls for fast action from the industry.
Faig Abbasov, director for shipping at environmental group Transport & Environment, said some cruise companies are investing in technology that can sharply reduce their emissions once it is in use—such as hydrogen fuel cells or engines that can run on green methanol—but the overall industry isn’t moving quickly enough.
New environmental rules are set to take effect over the coming years.
Shipping companies whose vessels start or end voyages in Europe, including those that run large cruise ships, will have to start paying for a portion of their emissions beginning next year through the EU’s emissions-trading system. A separate EU law will compel shipping companies to progressively increase their use of lower-emission fuels beginning in 2025, and ports in the bloc that are used frequently by cruise and containerships will need to provide onshore electricity connections by 2030.
California already has state-level rules that require cruise ships to plug into shore power or otherwise sharply curb their emissions while at high-traffic ports including Los Angeles and Long Beach.
And the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations organisation, in July committed to new greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets. The IMO also has rules for energy efficiency and carbon intensity in the shipping industry.
Regulations are “the only way that you can seriously drive this kind of massive step change in what we’re doing as an industry,” said Linden Coppell, MSC Cruises’ vice president for sustainability. Incoming rules will affect the kinds of ships the company orders in the future, how it transitions to alternative fuels and efforts to improve the vessels’ efficiency, she said.
Cruise companies are moving ahead with green investments despite the debt that some of them racked up during the pandemic.
Carnival said it has fewer new ships on order than at any point in recent decades. However, the company said it hasn’t significantly reduced capital expenditures, which include investments in sustainability-related technologies. Royal Caribbean said its sustainability commitments remained steadfast during the pandemic.
Norwegian has indicated in earnings reports that compliance with environmental rules and its own climate commitments will be costly. The company announced plans for two new methanol-ready ships earlier this year.
The biggest cruise companies “have tremendous access to capital and continue to invest in sustainable technologies,” said Ivan Feinseth, director of research and analyst at Tigress Financial Partners.
Not every move to alternative technology is winning fans. LNG emits less carbon dioxide and significantly fewer air pollutants than the heavy fuel oil used in many ships. But environmental groups say any climate benefits are overshadowed by the escape of unburned methane, a potent contributor to global warming, into the atmosphere.
“LNG is the best thing out there today,” said William Burke, Carnival’s chief maritime officer and a retired vice admiral with the U.S. Navy. He said ships that are built to use LNG will also be capable of running on bio or synthetic forms of the fuel in the future.
Carnival is working with manufacturers to reduce the release of methane and will have more efficient engines in newer ships, he said.
Green methanol, which can be produced from biomass or by using renewable electricity, is gaining ground as a viable alternative fuel for the shipping industry, in part because it can be stored at room temperature.
Norwegian expects to take delivery of two methanol-ready ships in 2027 and 2028. Mark Kempa, the company’s chief financial officer, acknowledged on an earnings call earlier this year that the ships would cost more, but added, “going green is not free.”
Privately owned cruise company Viking, which has a fleet of 10 ocean vessels, says it sees renewable hydrogen as the best future fuel. The company ordered ships that can run on both hydrogen and traditional marine fuels, and its Viking Neptune vessel has hydrogen fuel cells on board to test out the technology. But supplies of the fuel are still limited.
“We can’t solve the world’s hydrogen supply problem,” Hagen said. He said the company plans to increase its use of the fuel as it becomes more available. “When that happens, then we are prepared.”
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From candy corn and licensed costumes to pop-up Halloween shops and haunted houses, some of October’s most iconic traditions began as simple ideas from entrepreneurs and small businesses before evolving into major commercial phenomena. In 2025, Halloween grew into a $13.1 billion consumer business, driven in part by these innovations.
6 min
Candy Corn. Haunted houses. Seasonal spectacles that now seem inseparable from October.
Many of Halloween’s biggest mainstays started much more modestly—as ideas from entrepreneurs and small businesses that caught on, spread and eventually became traditions. Along the way, they helped turn Halloween into a $13.1 billion consumer business in 2025.
Here is a look at four of the most popular creations, and how they got their start.
Candy Corn
One of the most inescapable Halloween treats—Candy Corn—wasn’t marketed as a Halloween goody at first. In fact, it was marketed as a whimsical candy version of chicken feed.
It was created back in the 1880s in Philadelphia, which was then a candy-making hub. One popular trend among candy companies was nature: treats inspired by the agricultural world, like pumpkins, leaves and chestnuts.
Among those businesses was Wunderle Candy, owned by a family of German immigrants. (Milton Hershey worked there before he founded his chocolate business.) One Wunderle employee, George Renninger, came up with the idea of a candy shaped like corn kernels—but also took the innovative step of applying different layers of colors to the treats.
The process involved pouring layers of hot liquid sugar into tiny molds by hand. “It was laborious,” says Beth Kimmerle, founder and chief executive of Attribute Analytics and author of three books about candy.
The unusual color scheme gave the candy instant appeal. And, yes, it was marketed as faux chicken feed at the start: “an agricultural-themed novelty and penny candy that appeared throughout the year,” Kimmerle says.
How did the corn get associated with Halloween? At the turn of the last century, another candy company, Goelitz Confectionery, also began selling the treat. Kimmerle says it isn’t clear what kind of arrangement—if any—the two companies had about the rights to the candy. But, in the end, Goelitz usually gets the credit for scaling the candy and branding it as a Halloween product.
As for Wunderle, Kimmerle says, the business wound down in the 1980s, while Goelitz was eventually renamed Jelly Belly in 2001, and acquired by Ferrara Candy in 2023. (Another Ferrara brand, Brach’s, has also been selling candy-corn treats since the 1920s; Ferrara says that it doesn’t have information showing a licensing agreement between the companies.)
Candy Corn has not only become immensely popular in itself, but also has lent its colors and flavors to countless other products. This year, Brach’s launched a limited-edition fragrance, Ode to Candy Corn, which “smells exactly like how candy corn tastes,” according to the company.
Licensed costumes
Dressing up as your favorite fictional figure is a Halloween tradition. Entrepreneur Ben Cooper made it a lot easier for people to get into character—by making licensed costumes a big business.
In the 1930s, Cooper sold costumes for vaudeville, says Rob Caprilozzi, founder of the Horror News Network website, who recently made a documentary about Cooper. In 1937, the entrepreneur—whose company was simply called Ben Cooper Inc.—bought another company, A.S. Fishbach, which had the license to manufacture costumes of Disney characters.
Cooper added more costumes as new Disney movies came out, as well as updating the old ones, Caprilozzi says. In the 1960s, he expanded his line to superheroes—including Spider-Man and Batman—and then turned to “Sesame Street” and “Star Wars” characters in the 1970s.
“At its height, the company controlled 80% of the licensed custom characters,” says Caprilozzi.
And it wasn’t just fictional heroes, either: Cooper had a line of costumes based on U.S. presidents. (The company destroyed its JFK inventory after the assassination, says Caprilozzi.)
One of the selling points of Cooper’s costumes was simplicity. The costumes were just plastic masks and tarps costing a few dollars apiece, and you could toss them out after the big night—no need to hang onto them year-round.
The company lasted until 1992, when it filed for bankruptcy and was then acquired by competitor Rubie’s Costume. (The company, now known as Rubies, didn’t respond to requests for comment.)
Halloween pop-up shops
Joseph Marver didn’t change what we wear for Halloween, the candy we eat or the type of decorations we put up. But he revolutionized where we buy all that stuff.
Marver was running an apparel store called Spirit Women’s Discount Apparel in Castro Valley, Calif. October sales were historically slow, but he noticed sales booming at a costume shop across the street. According to media accounts, the other store changed locations, and Marver in 1983 decided to get into the Halloween business himself. He put his usual wares into storage and turned his store into an emporium for Halloween merchandise.
“I went to a trade show in Chicago, picked up everything I could that had to do with Halloween, and put it in my store, and it was amazing,” Marver told San Francisco Bay Area radio station KQED in July 2024. (He died in 2025.)
“His sales went through the roof,” says Lisa Morton, author of “Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween” and “The Halloween Encyclopedia.”
Marver doubled down on the gambit the following year—renting out a temporary space in a local mall to sell all types of Halloween products for eight to 10 weeks, from costumes to decorations to face paint. At the time, retail leases typically lasted a decade, and it was difficult for newcomers to land a lease, let alone a temporary one, says Barbara Kahn, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
In the interview with KQED, Marver described his initial difficulties. “Some of the people in the strip centers wanted to have the big boxes come in, but then, some of them realized it [was] not going to happen,” he said. So the malls agreed to take on the pop-ups, figuring, “‘Let’s do Halloween. Let’s get something going. Maybe it’ll bring business to the other tenants.’”
Over the next 16 years, Marver grew his business to 60 temporary retail outlets and changed its name to Spirit Halloween. His company spent the rest of the year preparing for the season, handling jobs like sourcing costumes and identifying potential real estate.
In 1999, Spencer Gifts bought the company; Marver stayed on as a consultant, then opened a hotel. Today, Spirit Halloween operates about 1,500 seasonal stores across the U.S. and Canada.
“I didn’t invent temporary sales,” Marver told the Seattle Times in October 2022, “but I feel like I invented temporary Halloween.”
Haunted houses
Walter Knott became famous as the founder of amusement park Knott’s Berry Farm, which has been in operation for about 80 years. But he and his marketing team also invented the large-scale, commercial haunted house.
People had been putting up private, informal haunted houses for years. Charitable organizations also set up the houses to raise funds, says Benjamin Gagne, president of the Haunted Attraction Association and owner of the Thirteenth Hour haunted attraction in Indianapolis.
But Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween event in 1973 was a first, a large-scale commercial setup designed to boost ticket sales during an otherwise slow season, says M. Stang, Ainsworth Visiting Scholar of American Culture at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Va.
Full-page advertisements flooded Orange County and Los Angeles County newspapers, promising entry to the “spookiest, ghouliest place in Southern California” for just $4. The print ads promised “bizarre, spooky antics,” a “fun-tingling plunge through Satan’s sawmill,” and “LIVE MONSTERS,” Stang wrote in a paper about the attraction.
The park also distinguished itself by having people in costumes provide the scares, says Gagne. Previously, amusement parks, including Disney, had what Gagne calls “dark carny rides,” where patrons rode around in carts, and mirrors and lighting created the mood.
The Scary Farm turned into an annual tradition. Knott’s is still running the Halloween attraction—which is open for 26 nights this season.
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