Editorial: Sea-borne visitors to be valued

Roger Moroney.

While researching facts and figures for Saturday's Insight feature about the cruise ship industry and its overall tourism industry footprint I was startled by some of the figures which emerged...but not really too surprised.

The Cruise Lines International Association has reported that 36 years ago about 1.4 million people, globally, took a cruise journey.

Ten years ago it had risen to 15 million and as of today there are about 24 million people taking a cruise ship journey.

That is a serious upward surge and it is showing no signs of dissolving - in fact it is accelerating.

A journey on a cruise liner is no longer the domain of the extremely wealthy for while there are luxury deals going there are also modest ones.

You can visit five or six locations or 20 or more for the options and destinations are now diverse.

You get a room and it gets attended to.

You get meals and you get to enjoy a passing maritime vista while enjoying a cool drink while encased by a deckchair.

You get taken city to city so no need to find parking and no need to queue up at some airport for what often seems like a fortnight.

It has revolutionised the tourism industry and the benefits are clear.

Holidaymakers buy things and if that holidaymaker is sad at having to leave a pretty and friendly place then they will likely return.

As I was told - a cruise ship visit is effectively a "taster" for many people who return home and plan a longer visit next time.

It's a slice of the tourism market we here have fortunately become a leading part of...it needs to be valued and embraced.