Guernsey Press

Average spend by cruise ship passengers goes up by 16%

THE average spend of each cruise passenger who came ashore this year went up by nearly 16%, but bad weather means that their contribution to the economy fell slightly.

Published
Passengers coming ashore from the P&O ship Azura. The Economic Development report into the cruise season shows the average spend had risen by 16%, but the value to the economy was less as a number of ships could not launch their tenders. (Picture by Peter Frankland, 20143448)

Latest statistics show the average spend per head was £36.46, while the overall value of cruise visitors to the island was just over £4m.

This represented a 0.4% fall compared to 2016 and was due, Economic Development said, to a drop in overall disembarking visitors as passengers and crew on 15 ships were unable to come ashore because of poor weather conditions.

A total of 110,288 came ashore, compared to 133,000 in 2016.

‘Despite the challenges of this season, the cruise market continues to show continued growth and be a vital part of Guernsey’s tourism business,’ said Mike Hopkins, director of marketing and tourism at VisitGuernsey.

The 2017 cruise visitor survey showed that average spend per disembarking cruise visitor increased by 15.9% compared with the previous year.

‘This was likely helped by a noticeable increase in the amount of time visitors spent ashore in Guernsey, with almost two-thirds of passengers spending four or more hours ashore,’ the committee said.

Full story in today's Guernsey Press