Will cruises come of age in Asia? 
Will cruises come of age in Asia?
Incoming cruise travellers
from four major international cruise liners will generates just over
90,000 visits to Thailand in 2010.
Association of Thai Travel
Agents honorary secretary general and Regale International Travel
managing director, Jumpol Chadavadh, who specialises in cruise ground
handling services, presented the case for attracting more international
cruise operators, at last week’s Asean Hotel & Restaurant
Association Seminar held in Bangkok.
According to Mr Jumpol,
Cunard; P&O Cruise and Costa generate 90,296 passengers. Of this,
30,248 passengers disembark in Phuket, 6,628 in Samui and 53,416 in
Laem Chabang, 20 km from Pattaya and 100 km from Bangkok.
CruiseMr
Jumpol, said the cruise industry is the fastest-growing category in the
leisure travel market. Since 1980, the industry has experienced an
average annual passenger growth of approximately 7.5% a year.
Globally,
cruise passengers represent 13.2 million visits. The industry forecasts
13.5 million passengers in 2009, a 2.3% increase over 2008.
“From
the demand side, Asia has a chance to become a new cruise hub and we
should be looking at how to develop facilities to attract this market.
“China,
Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam have seaports, or are currently
building them. It is a very serious challenge for us all.”
According
to Mr Jumpol, a typical cruise ship carries up to 2,000 passengers and
800 crew members and generates an estimated US$190,476 in passenger and
crew expenditures during a single port-of-call.
“As a result we
should focus on offering turnaround ports for cruise companies. If we
just welcome cruise passengers for port of calls then we are missing
the real challenge,” Mr Jumpol said.
However, the body of
industry opinion suggests that cruises are not as profitable for
developing economies, when compared with other forms of tourism. Cruise
passengers sleep on board with only a small percentage using hotel
services.
Ground handling, tours, and even shopping are tightly
controlled with shore-leave in a country limited to a day outing to the
nearest tourist destination. Overnight options are more likely at
popular destinations such as Singapore and Hong Kong where cruises
start or end. However, Phuket is attracting cruise ships that stay one
to two nights giving passengers an option to go onshore and stay in
partner hotels.
Source: http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2009/09/will-cruises-come-of-age-in-asia/
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