Passenger, Crew Spending Totals $2.3bn in the Caribbean
Seatrade Insider
October 28, 2009
Cruise passengers spend an average of $97.26 at each Caribbean port of call while crew spend an average of nearly $75 per visit, according to a new study commissioned by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association and 29 destinations.
Passengers and crew left $2.3bn in these 29 Caribbean ports during 20.8m onshore visits in the May 2008 through April 2009 cruise year. This spending generated more than 56,200 jobs paying $723m in wages across the region. The Eastern Caribbean in general and the US Virgin Islands in particular topped the list for passenger spending.
Cruise lines spent $280m, primarily for port services, taxes and stores. The Bahamas benefited from more cruise line spending than any other destination, followed by Puerto Rico, USVI, the Cayman Islands and Cozumel.
Business Research & Economic Advisors surveyed more than 47,000 passengers and more than 16,000 crew during a six-month period, from November to April, with more than 1,500 people interviewed per destination, according to BREA principal Andy Moody. The results were released Tuesday at the FCCA's cruise conference in St. Lucia.
Watches and jewelry account for the biggest chunk of passenger spending, double that of the second biggest purchase, shore excursions. Crew spend mainly on food and beverage at restaurants and bars, followed by watches and jewelry, then electronics.
Extrapolating from this data, the economic impact of a typical seven-day cruise -- with 3,000 passengers, 1,200 crew and four port calls -- generates 12,000 passenger and crew shore visits, $1.3bn in direct spending and 32 annualized jobs paying $410,000.
Passengers make more shore visits and spend the most, by far, in the Eastern Caribbean. The 10 Eastern Caribbean ports in the survey accounted for 51% of overall Caribbean passenger spending and 43% of the shore visits. The region's average passenger spend per port was $112.07.
Topping the list are the US Virgin Islands, with passengers spending an average of $193.22, followed by St. Maarten ($147.98), Puerto Rico ($100.55) and St. Kitts ($99.41). The Bahamas, Antigua, Turks & Caicos, Grenada, Dominica and Dominican Republic followed.
In the Western Caribbean, where seven ports in the survey accounted for 29% of total Caribbean expenditures and 30% of shore visits, passengers spend an average of $95.25 per port. They leave the most dollars in Cozumel ($104.58), followed by the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Belize.
In the Southern Caribbean, where eight destinations in the survey comprised a 12% share of total Caribbean expenditures and 16% of shore visits, the average spend is $71.08. Cartagena leads ($90.03), followed by Aruba, CuraÇao, Barbados and Costa Rica.
The study also looked at four ports on Mexico's West Coast, a region within the FCCA's domain. Acapulco led, with passengers spending an average of $87.65, followed by Cabo San Lucas, Ensenada and Huatulco.
Ten more destinations participated in this study than the one conducted by FCCA in 2006. The recent research was completed during a trough in consumer spending due to the global recession, Moody noted. Yet, with more capacity in the Caribbean, total cruise tourism expenditures rose nearly 30% in three years, with passenger and crew shore visits up 24%.
Total passenger spend rose 27%, with average passenger spend up 6%. A smaller proportion of passengers made purchases across all categories. However, those who did buy spent more than passengers in 2006.
Total crew spend shot up a whopping 56%, with average crew spend up 26%. A higher proportion of crew made purchases across most categories and the average value of a crew purchase increased or stayed the same as in 2006, Moody said.
Cruise line expenditures rose 22%.