Top cruises named in new survey
Twelve-day Mediterranean, seven-day Alaska and five-day Western Caribbean cruises emerged as the top long, mid and short itineraries this year in Cruise Holidays Travel Trends Survey.
“Our Europe bookings are up 42% year-over-year and CLIA stated recently that the Mediterranean is one of the three fastest growing segments in the cruise industry,” said Peter Thomson, vice president and COO of Cruise Holidays. He added:
“By gleaning information from true cruise industry experts, like our Cruise Holidays experts, on the most underrated European port of call or the top Mediterranean shore excursions, we are really trying to educate consumers and give them the best cruise vacation experience possible.”
The survey represented 93% of the Cruise Holidays network.
The most popular Caribbean islands/port of calls are, in order, St. Thomas, Grand Cayman, St. Maarten/St. Martin, Cozumel, and Aruba and Jamaica tied for fifth place.
The most popular Mediterranean ports are Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Santorini, and Athens and Istanbul tied for fifth.
The most popular non-Mediterranean Europe ports are St. Petersburg, London, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Dublin and Lisbon tied.
The survey found that agents consider Dubrovnik the most underrated European port of call.
Cruise Holidays also asked its agents for the top three Mediterranean shore excursions. Excursions in Italy were the most popular — those responses accounted for 55.3% of the recommended Mediterranean shore excursions. Greece followed with 12.8% and various excursions in Turkey combined for 9.9% of the responses.
When looking at the excursions individually, the Vatican and Rome were the most popular, followed by Pompeii. The agents recommended private guided tours of the Vatican to avoid long lines.
The singular most popular Mediterranean shore excursion outside of Italy was the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey.
The top reasons for a European river cruises are more intimate experience in each port of call, more inland scenery and sights, smaller ships, castles, and shopping. For more information, visit www.CruiseHolidays.com.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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