Cruise goers want more overnight stays

THE appeal of vibrant city
nightlife is becoming an
increasingly important
draw card for cruise goers,
resulting in more cruise
operators including overnight
stays in their itineraries.
“If I look at some of the
2016 itineraries, there
are more overnight stays
than ever before,” says
commercial manager of
Cruises International,
Tracey Krog.
 “The trend doesn’t only
relate to small ship luxury
cruise lines – the mass
market cruise lines are
moving towards overnight
stays too,” says Tracey.
“While spending up to eight
hours in a city during the
day is a great treat, simply
letting the afternoon take
guests wherever it leads
them is a great benefit of
‘overnighting’. Guests are
curious to experience the city
once the sun sets. Cruise
lines have taken cognisance
of this and are adjusting their
deployment accordingly,” she
says, adding that overnight
stays are particularly popular
with repeat cruisers.
Jackie Adami, md of
Development Promotions,
says operators are seeing
more itineraries with longer
stopovers at each port of
call. “Guests can enjoy a
relaxing stay while exploring
each destination en route
and not having the pressure
of trying to see as much as
possible in a short period
of time. We wouldn’t say
that there is a demand for
stopovers as this is a fairly
new concept but it is being
very well received by clients
and certainly is a great
selling point.”
The decision to implement
overnight stays is largely
dependent on the city
and its appeal as a night
destination. “Overnight stays
are generally made available
in ports where there are an
extensive number of sights.
They might occur at the start
or end of a voyage but also
mid-voyage with the ship
docked for several days in
one port. For example, St
Petersburg or Myanmar,” says
Gaynor Neil, gm of Cruise
Vacations.
Other cities that top this
list are Sydney, Hong Kong,
Bangkok, Singapore, Cape
Town, Istanbul, Kusadasi and
Rome, says Ian Mathews,
sales and marketing manager
of Triton Cape Sea Travel.