Cruisers still opt for specialist agents
UK cruise passengers still like to use specialist agencies to book their trips, see cruising as less old fashioned that it used to be and admit that once they’ve been once they’ll more than likely cruise again.
These are some of the findings of Cruise Thomas Cook’s first annual cruise report called Holidays At Sea 2008.
The survey, which asked 5,000 respondents to answer questions, found that 52% think its important to book cruises through an agent who is expert in this field of travel and a quarter said that expertise was a key factor when choosing a cruise. And six out of ten cruisers think the experience is far less formal than it used to be. Meanwhile, 76% of the 4811 people who’d already cruised said they would do so again.
Some 79% thought cruising offered better value for money than other types of holiday, 59% would rather tip at their own discretion than at a set rate and one in three prefer to make their own arrangements when visiting ports rather than take organized shore excursions.
Director of Cruise Thomas Cook Marc Bennett said; “It’s interesting to see cruise passengers becoming more independent and confident about doing their own thing in port. We plan to meet this trend by providing more port information for people who book with us, and we’d like to see the cruise lines provide more of this kind of information as well.â€
Cruise Thomas Cook says that in the market as a whole, cruising has doubled its share of foreign inclusive package holidays over the past 10 years.
By Dinah Hatch
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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