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Cruise News for the Corporate Travel Professional |
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Cruising is the new mass tourism with passengers spending the least of all visitors |
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Pioneering university study reveals cruising is the new mass
tourism and it appears that while more cruise ships are visiting the fjords of
Western Norway, passengers only spend a fraction of what other tourists spend,
which could be a scenario replicated all over the world While the overall number of visitors to Western Norway has declined slightly, cruise ship passengers have increased, however, the average camping tourist spends twice as much as the average cruise ship passenger according to a study by the University of Bergen’s Department of Psychosocial Science’s Professor Svein Larsen. Professor Larsen, a pioneer in studies into how much revenue cruise tourism actually contributes to local economies visited by cruise ships, conducted a comprehensive survey of tourism in Western Norway and recently published his results in the article “Belly full, purse closed”, in the journal Tourism Management Perspectives. Over the last three years, Professor Larsen has spent his summers interviewing more than 8,000 tourists, of which 1,300 were cruise ship passengers, saying that the result is clear, with cruise passengers spending the least of all types of tourists. His research shows that the average cruise tourist on average spends about $50 a day onshore and between twenty and forty percent don’t even leave the ship. In addition, half of those who leave the ship spend less than $45 onshore, with in comparison, the average camping or hostel tourist spends twice this amount. The average family tourist, who stays in a hotel, tops the spending list with an average spend of $150 a day, which is in addition to paying for the hotel room. Professor Larsen believes that the low spend per cruise tourist is caused by budget cruise offers of all inclusive packages, with for example, a six day cruise of the Norwegian fjords costing as little as €220 [$A279], with the same journey by air travel and individually arranged accommodation usually costing several times that amount. He says that taking a cruise is the new mass tourism, with tourists fed on board and even doing their shopping on board, with the cruise industry’s objective being to make money on board, with it not unusual for cruise passengers to be let off board for a minimum period of time, usually a maximum of eight hours per onshore visit. He says that the only locals profiting from the cruise ships are the port authorities, and also occasionally tourist guides and industries built specifically to cater for the cruise ship sector, with only limited resources reaching public toilets, local shops, or tourist attractions. He believes local authorities need to rethink their policies on tourism, with local authorities needing to focus more on sustainable tourism, with young people and families spending a significant amount of money when on holiday, with for example, cruise passengers on the other hand, preferring to visit a non entrance fee museum rather than, for example, the Bergen Aquarium, where they have to pay an entrance fee. He did say though that there are some categories where cruise passengers spend more than other tourists, including cafés, sightseeing, and shopping, with on average the cruise passenger spending $5 a day in each of these three categories, but this spend also remains low. Professor Larsen says that this type of cruise visitation is not sustainable tourism, as there may be queues when the cruise ships visit town, but they don’t leave much behind for the local economy with other research showing that there may be an additional legacy of negative environmental impact from the cruise ship industry. |
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