Page 18 - North American & Caribbean Cruise Traveller
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Industry Insider:
North American & Caribbean Cruise Duty & Tax Free Retail 2015
High potential spend levels: The average passenger spent a total of $2,200 on and during their cruise in 2015, according to the CLIA’s findings. Of this total, on-board / on-shore expenses reached around $565 per passenger, illustrating the openness among North American cruise passengers to make additional purchases whilst on their trip. This therefore presents a key opportunity for Duty / Tax Free retailers both on-board and on- land and emphasises the importance of appealing and differentiated product ranges and offerings in order to compete and capture sales.
Length of cruise: The average cruise length of the North American traveller stands at around 7.3 days with around 60% of travellers embarking on a cruise of 6-8 days. In addition, more than a quarter embarked on a cruise of 9+ days in 2014, according to the CLIA. Therefore, on-board cruise retailers have a captive audience to target with advertising and promotions for a fairly long period of time. Furthermore, this lengthy period provides the opportunity for on-board retailers to develop relationships with passengers through activities such as special events and specialist discounts. Longer cruise services also provides the opportunity for numerous port calls, therefore allowing on-land port stores operators to target passengers with retail offerings at various locations, particularly in the Caribbean, with unique and differentiated offerings.
Repeat cruising: Overall cruise satisfaction is very high among North American travellers, with almost two-thirds of all cruise travellers in the North American & Caribbean region having taken multiple cruises. This presents a clear opportunity for cruise liners and retailers to target repeat visitors with loyalty based sales strategies, such as frequent traveller discounts. This could be done on a brand or category basis, particularly on souvenir oriented items.
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