How much do you spend during your cruise ship port stops?

[RedIguana]

I spent a lot of time in the keys in the 70's and 80's. Back when there were no stoplights between Florida City and Key West, and the tiki bar in Islamorada  had room for 30 people. Lake Largo was green and had lobster and grouper in it. Spent more time in the upper keys than lower as it was only an hour and a half drive. So I have seen the drastic changes just from the development in the keys. 

In that report from the CLIA (2020) which lists cruise spend at 7%, it has a little side bar that the per hour spend is 50% more than overnight visitors and 75% higher than day trippers. Yes I have seen the difference between ships in port vs not, and I do understand why some do not like it. I preferred Florida when it had 14 million less people in it.

[RedIguana]

45 minutes ago, TRLD said:

10 or 12 key lime pie shops (really not good or authentic to get that you gave to go away from the port) in the immediate port area.

 

We had a key lime tree in our backyard. My mom made an awesome key lime pie with a  meringue topping. We kept all our citrus trees well fertilized by burying our fish carcasses around them.

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

Having been to Key West FLA  both before and after the big cruise port explosion, I totally agree. Key West is a great example of what not to do.  It was heart-breaking to see small, charming and local become noisy, crowded, generic and way overly-impacted.

 

I was surprised to see equally impacted Avalon on Santa Catalina Island (off Los Angeles) still did retain a lot of its small village feeling, even after decades of day-trippers from both local ferries and cruise ships.  They kept the scale small - no more  than two stories high and perhaps also limited the numbers of non-local businesses.

 

Skagway AK could learn a few things from both examples, as it now teeters badly between previously quaint and local "Made in Alaska" and now the very non-local  Diamonds International and Del Sol invasions. 

 

My own home town now struggles with these very cruise ship impact issues - how many, how large, how often. Activists now expanding  the offshore "Marine Sanctuary" may well bring an end to all shipping, including daily cargo ship transits. 

 

It's a long time since I've been to Key West. Sad that the port area has become generified. I will see it in a few weeks. I hope the foodie tour I'm taking will go to local-owned businesses. 

 

One town in Alaska that has held onto control is Sitka. They have kept out the "carbon copy businesses," as @TRLD so aptly put it, but I wonder how long that will last. Since they enlarged the cruise piers, the building no longer has a nice locally-made market, but a larger more generic souvenir store. 

[cruisemom42]

Cruise lines can exert a lot of pressure on these smaller ports too. On my recent TA stop in Punta Delgada (Azores), someone commented to the tour guide on the character of the area around the port with lots of small local businesses. He said that a few years ago, Royal Caribbean came to their local council and asked for the right to buy up stores around the port area to install their own partners' stores. (I assumed this would be something along the lines of Diamonds International and the like.) 

 

The town council said no. He said RCL got a bit ugly, saying they would stop visiting this port. The board held out and -- guess what -- RCL ships still are calling there.

 

[TRLD]

2 hours ago, RedIguana said:

I spent a lot of time in the keys in the 70's and 80's. Back when there were no stoplights between Florida City and Key West, and the tiki bar in Islamorada  had room for 30 people. Lake Largo was green and had lobster and grouper in it. Spent more time in the upper keys than lower as it was only an hour and a half drive. So I have seen the drastic changes just from the development in the keys. 

In that report from the CLIA (2020) which lists cruise spend at 7%, it has a little side bar that the per hour spend is 50% more than overnight visitors and 75% higher than day trippers. Yes I have seen the difference between ships in port vs not, and I do understand why some do not like it. I preferred Florida when it had 14 million less people in it.

Kind of funny that the only real positive that they can come up with  is spend per hour. Have not seen revenue per hour as a financial metric for any business. Total revenue, margins, etc yes, but revenue to hour? Shows how far one must go to find a positive metric.

 

Would be interesting to see the data behind their numbers. Setting up a model running through a comparison based up the data in their report the only way I can come up with matching their per hour spend would be by overnight travelers having to mostly be campers or sleeping in their cars.

 

After all their $72 spend across a 8 hour port visit would be $9 per hour. For a 6 hour stop it would be $12. Applying the higher number to a 24 stay the higher number would be would be $288. Not many hotels available at that rate. Since most of those are also eating out an overnight visitor would be even higher. So would be interested on where they got their per hour estimates.

Edited January 19 by TRLD

[TRLD]

43 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

It's a long time since I've been to Key West. Sad that the port area has become generified. I will see it in a few weeks. I hope the foodie tour I'm taking will go to local-owned businesses. 

 

One town in Alaska that has held onto control is Sitka. They have kept out the "carbon copy businesses," as @TRLD so aptly put it, but I wonder how long that will last. Since they enlarged the cruise piers, the building no longer has a nice locally-made market, but a larger more generic souvenir store. 

Sitka is still an outlier, same as the new port in Icy Strait. Prior to the new pier Sitka had far fewer ship visits than the other ports such as Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. Pretty much limited to one or two ships tendering. Now you have the ships docking at the pier, as well as some still tendering. As you say will be interesting to see how the substantial increase impacts the city. 

[RedIguana]

35 minutes ago, TRLD said:

Kind of funny that the only real positive that they can come up with  is spend per hour. Have not seen revenue per hour as a financial metric for any business. Total revenue, margins, etc yes, but revenue to hour? Shows how far one must go to find a positive metric.

Well it is a cruise line industry group. And the spend per hour does help compare two very different categories of travelers. Anyway, here is a link to the CLIA article.

https://cruising.org/-/media/clia---visitor-spending-analysis---key-west

[TRLD]

29 minutes ago, RedIguana said:

Well it is a cruise line industry group. And the spend per hour does help compare two very different categories of travelers. Anyway, here is a link to the CLIA article.

https://cruising.org/-/media/clia---visitor-spending-analysis---key-west

Which lists the claim but does not provide how they arrive at those numbers.  Note also that the report was produced in 2020 during the shutdown and during the peak covid period.

With some of their references going back to 2005 and 2006, a far different time.

 

There are many other reports including some of those referenced by CLIA where putting the data in models to determine the average hourly spend generate far different results.  Especially when on considers the average hotel prices and other metrics.  As I said above to get to the CLIA numbers the assumptions would have to be rather extreme and counter to what some of even their data sources would indicate.

 

A good comparison for year over year tourism activities is 

https://www.keywesttravelguide.com/key-west-tourism-statistics/

 

which provides a lot of data that would apply to doing a cost per hour model.

[ellieanne]

Depends on the stop.
In the Caribbean, very little -- the cost of the tour & tips for the driver/guide, if I take one, usually a bottled cold drink somewhere, and a couple of postcards. I don't really purchase much in the Caribbean, Curaçao being the exception. I'll usually spend more there.
On Eastern Canada/New England cruises, it's not unusual for me to spend over $200 in port, between souvenirs, tours & tips, and meals ashore.

[ArizonaStorm]

$0. I’m on a 17-day cruise to Hawaii aboard the Koningsdam. We arrived in Honolulu this morning. I waved bye-bye to the thousands of passengers and crew who disembarked this morning.  I’ve spent the day slowly wandering around the ship, discovering all the charming locations where I might pass time in the coming 10 days. I had a leisurely breakfast in the Club Orange dining room, a lovely Apple pancake in the Grand Dutch Cafe (no line), and have spent the day front and center in the Crow’s Nest - a lovely room that I’ve avoided because it is usually packed and loud. I walked through the Lido Cafe without being run over by a hoard. Today is the first day of the cruise where my introversion has been at rest. I suspect many of the people sitting around me feel the same.  No drama.  I’m sitting here with a Piña Colada enjoying the view of Honolulu from the non-humid 12th Deck, smiling.  

[tscoffey]

6 hours ago, cbr663 said:

 I just priced a 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Icon of the Seas for November and it was $12,000 CDN for a regular balcony cabin

Did you comparatively price a similar cabin and duration not on Icon? Icon is greatly overpriced right now, obviously.

 

And to keep to the topic: I like my port trinkets/collectibles/junk, and normally spend $20-40 on said items alone, (not counting any excursions or restaurant meals) depending on what is there.

Edited January 20 by tscoffey

[Blackduck59]

We usually have lunch ashore so that can be as little as $30,00 or over $100.00 in the case of King Crab in Alaska. We always buy a fridge magnet in every port and is we see an artisan crafted item we may spend upwards of $100.00 for that. We are planning a rather long down under adventure next year and there are some major purchases planned, A new Akubra hat for me and Ugg boots for my wife. Those purchases are technically "pre-cruise". We will be looking for interesting things during our 43 day New Zealand and Trans-Pacific crossing cruise, we'll see if we bring anything home. We will be having some meals ashore though.

[dockman]

I spend very very little as I have been to almost all the ports before years ago when shore excursions were reimbursed as biz expense as well as being a lot more affordable....plus i am fortunate that one of my favorite things is to go for a 5 mile or so walk in most every port...the walking is free and i feel like it is an excellent way to see a place through more local eyes than staring out the window of a bus.  I also rarely if ever feel the need to buy any food ashore as i am very very happy with the onboard food and frankly the best view in most ports is from the ship..it can also be wonderful to keep shore time minimal as the ships can be wonderful places when most of the passengers are gone all day....I am not a big spender for the cruise line on drink packages shore excursions etc  but i do go on a lot more cruises than their average customer... i think i have spent over two years + of my life as a cruise ship passenger.  Big regret that i did not keep track of all the various cruises as well as ship dates and itineraries...

[Real NHDOC]

I have never understood the argument against cruise guests that we don’t spend as much as land tourists therefore the cruise ships should be banned. It’s not like most of us would go to most of these ports as land tourists so any money we spend is found money for the locals. I’ve been to Key West many times on cruises and there’s always plenty of space on the sidewalks to walk around. More often than not we’ll eat in a local restaurant or buy some things at Kermit’s that they would not have otherwise sold. But if they would prefer us not to come and spend our money we can always spend it elsewhere. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

7 hours ago, dockman said:

I spend very very little as I have been to almost all the ports before years ago when shore excursions were reimbursed as biz expense as well as being a lot more affordable....plus i am fortunate that one of my favorite things is to go for a 5 mile or so walk in most every port...the walking is free and i feel like it is an excellent way to see a place through more local eyes than staring out the window of a bus.  I also rarely if ever feel the need to buy any food ashore as i am very very happy with the onboard food and frankly the best view in most ports is from the ship..it can also be wonderful to keep shore time minimal as the ships can be wonderful places when most of the passengers are gone all day....I am not a big spender for the cruise line on drink packages shore excursions etc  but i do go on a lot more cruises than their average customer... i think i have spent over two years + of my life as a cruise ship passenger.  Big regret that i did not keep track of all the various cruises as well as ship dates and itineraries...

 

I rarely take full-day tours, partly because the lunch tends to take too long, wasting precious time for sightseeing. Plus, that leaves me half a day (or all day if I don't do a tour) to walk around on my own. I recently read an article about taking a "photo safari." Just grab your camera and go for a walk. Like this is some new idea? I've been doing that my whole life! 

 

I have kept track. I keep way too much paper from cruises. I finally reached the point where I knew I had to purge excess stuff. While I was at it, I made up a spreadsheet. I'm well over a year, but don't think I will make it to two. My goal has been a year on Cunard, which I will reach this summer. I've only got about 6 months on HAL, so I'm not going to make it to a year there. 

 

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, Real NHDOC said:

I have never understood the argument against cruise guests that we don’t spend as much as land tourists therefore the cruise ships should be banned. It’s not like most of us would go to most of these ports as land tourists so any money we spend is found money for the locals. I’ve been to Key West many times on cruises and there’s always plenty of space on the sidewalks to walk around. More often than not we’ll eat in a local restaurant or buy some things at Kermit’s that they would not have otherwise sold. But if they would prefer us not to come and spend our money we can always spend it elsewhere. 

 

Some people will always claim that the main (or only) argument is economics, but I don't agree. In a number of places where opposition to large cruise ships is growing (or has already matured), one of the main points is quality of life. Frankly, a lot of people don't like having 10,000 - 12,000 people dumped in their relatively small towns for the day. 

 

There are short-term and long-term effects of this happening. One example of a short-term impact is that locals have to hide out at home during the day, which is not ideal, especially if it happens multiple days out of a week. A long-term effect is that locally-owned stores start disappearing in favor of those that sell the same tourist tat. This makes it difficult for locals to buy the things they need to live there.

 

And of course, long-term changes can also impact economics -- if enough people start feeling like the character of the place has changed, they are unlikely to make a special trip to stay there in a local hotel or a long-term rental (which is more advantageous to the economy than a visitor who is only there for 5-7 hours and only spends $65....)

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

3 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Some people will always claim that the main (or only) argument is economics, but I don't agree. In a number of places where opposition to large cruise ships is growing (or has already matured), one of the main points is quality of life. Frankly, a lot of people don't like having 10,000 - 12,000 people dumped in their relatively small towns for the day. 

 

There are short-term and long-term effects of this happening. One example of a short-term impact is that locals have to hide out at home during the day, which is not ideal, especially if it happens multiple days out of a week. A long-term effect is that locally-owned stores start disappearing in favor of those that sell the same tourist tat. This makes it difficult for locals to buy the things they need to live there.

 

And of course, long-term changes can also impact economics -- if enough people start feeling like the character of the place has changed, they are unlikely to make a special trip to stay there in a local hotel or a long-term rental (which is more advantageous to the economy than a visitor who is only there for 5-7 hours and only spends $65....)

 

 

I think your first and third paragraphs explain why Bar Harbor is limiting cruise ships. I have seen the sidewalks overflowing with people and have heard grumblings that hotels are losing business because land-based travelers don't want to deal with the cruise crowds. 

 

Over the years, I haven't seen changes in the port area businesses. They even still have an independent bookstore, one of my markers of a town that has kept its character. I wonder if they're afraid they won't be able to fight the pressure from the influx of thousands of people and lose that character. You can't get it back once Diamonds/emeralds/tanzanite International and Del Sol take root.

 

 

[Real NHDOC]

5 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I think your first and third paragraphs explain why Bar Harbor is limiting cruise ships. I have seen the sidewalks overflowing with people and have heard grumblings that hotels are losing business because land-based travelers don't want to deal with the cruise crowds. 

 

Over the years, I haven't seen changes in the port area businesses. They even still have an independent bookstore, one of my markers of a town that has kept its character. I wonder if they're afraid they won't be able to fight the pressure from the influx of thousands of people and lose that character. You can't get it back once Diamonds/emeralds/tanzanite International and Del Sol take root.

 

 

Bar Harbor has such a limited supply of hotel rooms it’s unfathomable to believe that enough land tourists would boycott it because of cruise ships to create vacancies. Rather than ban them entirely limiting them to one large ship in port per day makes sense. But some ports have taken the extreme position that no cruise ships should be allowed. I just think that’s an overreaction to the situation. 

[3rdGenCunarder]

6 minutes ago, Real NHDOC said:

Bar Harbor has such a limited supply of hotel rooms it’s unfathomable to believe that enough land tourists would boycott it because of cruise ships to create vacancies. Rather than ban them entirely limiting them to one large ship in port per day makes sense. But some ports have taken the extreme position that no cruise ships should be allowed. I just think that’s an overreaction to the situation. 

 

I don't know if I'm unusual in this aspect, but one of the things I like about a variety of ports on a cruise is finding places I want to return to for more than just a day. I wonder how many people do come back for longer (and more expenditures) after a sample visit.

[cruisemom42]

39 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I don't know if I'm unusual in this aspect, but one of the things I like about a variety of ports on a cruise is finding places I want to return to for more than just a day. I wonder how many people do come back for longer (and more expenditures) after a sample visit.

 

Quite a few people who post on CC say that they do this, but I'm not sure how many actually do. It seems to me that a high percentage of CC posters are retirees who've not traveled much before (with exception of the Caribbean/Mexico perhaps) and who look at cruising as an easy way to get to those places they've always wanted to see with a minimum of fuss and planning on their part. I would venture to guess that many don't feel comfortable traveling on their own and probably wouldn't return for a longer stay at a later date -- they are busy pursuing their bucket list check-offs.

 

I've used cruises as recon for longer land-based trips quite a few times. I'd been to a lot of Western European countries before by land, but a cruise convinced me that, as a solo woman, I could travel to Egypt, Israel/Jordan, Turkey, and even Tunisia on my own, which I later did on a series of separate trips. Some places I visited on a cruise I felt were unsafe to do on my own but I am happy to at least have visited them by ship when it was possible -- such as Syria and Beirut.

 

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Quite a few people who post on CC say that they do this, but I'm not sure how many actually do. It seems to me that a high percentage of CC posters are retirees who've not traveled much before (with exception of the Caribbean/Mexico perhaps) and who look at cruising as an easy way to get to those places they've always wanted to see with a minimum of fuss and planning on their part. I would venture to guess that many don't feel comfortable traveling on their own and probably wouldn't return for a longer stay at a later date -- they are busy pursuing their bucket list check-offs.

 

I've used cruises as recon for longer land-based trips quite a few times. I'd been to a lot of Western European countries before by land, but a cruise convinced me that, as a solo woman, I could travel to Egypt, Israel/Jordan, Turkey, and even Tunisia on my own, which I later did on a series of separate trips. Some places I visited on a cruise I felt were unsafe to do on my own but I am happy to at least have visited them by ship when it was possible -- such as Syria and Beirut.

 

 

One day in Rekjavik led to two weeks in Iceland, so you never know what port you'll fall in love with.

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I don't know if I'm unusual in this aspect, but one of the things I like about a variety of ports on a cruise is finding places I want to return to for more than just a day. I wonder how many people do come back for longer (and more expenditures) after a sample visit.

 

Our recent next door neighbors visited our town for the first time on a cruise ship, and then came back a month later to buy a house.  Put  that amount into the "average" amount a cruise passenger spends locally. 🤑

[Tampa Girl]

On 1/19/2024 at 12:41 AM, Bill B said:

I've never thought about it (until now). Personally, it varies dramatically from zero to many hundreds of dollars for a helicopter tour. They always get my port charges.

 

What persentage, if any, does the city get from port charges?

[Tampa Girl]

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Our recent next door neighbors visited our town for the first time on a cruise ship, and then came back a month later to buy a house.  Put  that amount into the "average" amount a cruise passenger spends locally. 🤑

 

The only income I can see from a former tourist buying real estate in that city would be the taxes and fees at closing.  Yearly RE taxes were being corrected from the seller, assuming that it was not a ew house.  I think that what the cities are primarily counting area from dining and shopping.  And the figures from those expenditures don't support any great advantage to a city.  

[OlsSalt]

14 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

The only income I can see from a former tourist buying real estate in that city would be the taxes and fees at closing.  Yearly RE taxes were being corrected from the seller, assuming that it was not a ew house.  I think that what the cities are primarily counting area from dining and shopping.  And the figures from those expenditures don't support any great advantage to a city.  

 

An intangible argument the pro-cruise people do make is hoping a single day cruise visit will bring people back to the city for more contributions to the local economy.  But mainly, the  comment was intended to be a joke.  

 

Yes, the port fees do contribute a significant amount to the city's Harbor enterprise zone operations.  Good question. Don't know if this amount was included in the "average" benefit to the city, but it should. Probably depends whether one is pro-cruise ships or anti-cruise ships -we have both working inside our local  government operations.

 

Suspect the final number are pretty fuzzy because who can really tell if any purchase was by a cruise passenger or not. They probably go on averages of averages - sales taxes, revenues and fees collected on cruise ships days compared to non-cruise ship days.