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CRUISE EUROPE 2013
he ship that is the cruise industry is heading to a very happy place. One in three who booked a cruise last year were first timers. The cruise lines expect them to come back in the next 16 months. The message that the cruise industry has been preaching since the recession began is getting through. Cruises have a lower per night charge than a budget hotel. One in 15 packages sold in Ireland and eight packages sold in England is a cruise, compared with one in 25 nine years ago, but still a long short of its potential. There are more ships, more direct air links, more investment and more opportunities than ever before. Much of that action has switched to European waters.
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hore excursions are the reasons that the Med has become the new Caribbean. Europe has an array of interesting cities a night sailing away from each other. Unlike Caribbean (or crucially, Alaskan) shore excursions there is lots to do and in some cities up to 20 different excursions to sell to cruise clients. Cruise companies who used to reposition their ships from the Caribbean to Alaska for summer first started to chose Europe instead in the early noughties. Then came cheaper trans-Atlantic
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ou cannot but notice the TV, press and online adverts for cruise holidays. So what is delaying your clients? The top reasons for going remain the same. n Travel far unpack once n Value for money n Amazing Destinations n Floating resorts for all n Do a little or do a lot n Luxury fine dining In 2011 over 19m people of all ages took a
What your clients should know
Med men (and women)
Cruising has left other aspects of the travel industry in its wash The state of the art emfares and the first stirrings prices. of interest in cruise in EuSince 2006 the five barkation terminals at ropean countries. largest cruise ships in the these ports and the easy Shore excursions are a world were built in Eu- airport transfers made valuable revenue earner rope and brought across cruising more accessible for the shipping line, for the Atlantic to ply their than it had been before. Lorraine Quinn of ground handlers and for trade out of Fort Laudagents who sell ancillary erdale. Now two of them Royal Caribbean says product. Hence the num- are back, along with sev- that the ratio of Caribbean ber of cruise ships plying eral of the previous gen- to European cruises used their trade on the Med has eration of biggest ships in to be 70-30 and slowly changed to 60-40. Now it increased rapidly. the world. is exactly reversed, with The Irish clients who used to (paradoxically) ow the key ports 60pc of clients choosing get a Caribbean cruise of Amsterdam, Europe for their cruises. cheaper than a European Barcelona, Cit- Barcelona was singleone, have been watching tavecchia, Copenhagen, handedly responsible for this with interest. There is Palma de Majorca and much of this growth, parmore capacity on the Med Southampton are hosts to ticularly when the Aer and more packages to several huge ships at Lingus service tied in with cruise departures. sell, often at terrific once. According to John Galligan the most common cruise holiday, on ships market. fears of first time cruises that are now generally at Features that have is that they won’t like the least twice the size of the been put into place into people on the ship, the Titanic and house Rock today's cruising make food will be awful, there climbing walls, 400 seat most cruise ships innovawill be nothing to do, theatres, ice rinks and tive and exciting with they will hate it and will dozens of bars and each catering for all be stuck out in the sea, restaurants along with re- kinds of age groups. they will get seasick and laxation spas and state- Meaning whatever age the cruise lines won’t of-the-art fitness centres. bracket you come under cater for their special The average cruise lasts you can enjoy any activneeds. 7.1 days ity that suits you, from He says the key to havThe mindset that cruis- formal evenings with ing happy customers is to ing is for older people is dancing to clubs and sell the right cruise to the fast disappearing. Ships games rooms for children right person, by querying are being gauged towards and teenagers. what they like doing, families and a younger
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what is their budget, are they beach or city types, what duration they want, do they want a long or a short flight or a direct departure, whether they are travelling alone, as a couple or as a group, and crucially what age they are. All of the cruise lines say the average age is falling. But the slide is barely discernible. Europeans however tend to cruise younger. Currently the average cruise age is the mid 40s in Spain and Italy, 51 in the United States, and 62 in England.
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urope’s itineraries cluster around the principle cities Ajaccio, Ancona, Argostoli, Armonia, Barcelona, Bari, Catania, Civitavecchia, Corfu, Corfù, Dubrovnik, Genoa, Goulette, Ibiza, Istanbul, Izmir, Katakolon, Kotor, Livorno, Mallorca, Marseille, Mykonos, Naples, Palermo, Palma, Piraeus, Salerno, Santorini, Valencoa, Valletta and Venice, The access points to Athens and Rome can be grimy and industrial, as can the port areas of cities
like Genoa, but there are spectacular ports for entry and departure like Venice.
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ntry level cruise for an Irish person has changed too. It used to be a small and older ship, including the ships from the likes of Fred Olsen that used to call to Dublin. Now it is more likely to be one of the biggies from Royal Caribbean, MSC, Princess or NCL. Another change is that the Middle East is now a base so that ships such as MSC Lirica and RCCL’s Brilliance of the Seas are repositioning from Abu Dhabi and Dubai rather than across the Atlantic. A big advantage of the cruise lines moving ships to Europe in the spring and back in the autumn to the Caribbean is repositioning cruises. These tend to be long on sea days and short on port calls, and can cost as little as $50 a day. Allow plenty of time, beware of bad weather on trans-Atlantic crossings and expect an older crowd.