A new study has found that Brits would like to see more UK departure ports for cruise holidays, than there currently is. Conducted by www.bonvoyage.co.uk, the study showed that people want more choice when it comes to how they start their cruise holiday.
The study polled a total of 2,146 Britons aged 30 and asked them on their opinions about cruise holidays and their reasons why choose to go on one, or why they chose not to. Out of those questioned 78per cent of people hadn’t been on a cruise holiday. Those that hadn’t been on a cruise were then asked what the reasons were why they hadn’t. Two fifths specified that they couldn’t afford the price of flying to the port as well as the cost of the cruise holiday itself. Over a fifth, said they ‘couldn’t take enough time off’ to be able to enjoy the cruise holiday that they wanted to go on (i.e. two plus weeks). 12 per cent said that they actually never considered’ the idea of going on a cruise and a quarter stated that they weren’t planning on taking a cruise holiday until they had retired.
Speaking about the study, Steph Curtin, Cruise Development Manager of bonvoyage.co.uk, said: “Cruising from a UK port is the ideal situation, but with long-haul destinations this is not always possible. It would take too much time to sail from the UK to the first initial port, meaning people would not only have to take more time off, but it might end up not being as interesting as it should be.”
They were also asked what would entice them to take a cruise holiday from a list of answers, and could choose more than one option. The results are as follows:
1. More UK port departure options – 62%
2. More all-inclusive fly/cruise packages – 49%
3. Have the option to stay in a city overnight – 31%
4. More long-haul destination choices from UK ports – 28%
5. Personalised itineraries – 19%
One thing which those who were polled wanted to see was more UK ports, they would then consider taking a cruise holiday and a fifth said that if there were a larger variety of UK port options they would book a cruise holiday as their next holiday. They also would like more ports available for cruises in areas such as the East Coast, Scotland and the North of England.
Steph Curtin also said: “We have a large variety of ex-UK cruises from Southampton and Harwich sailing to Northern Europe, Western Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean and even North America. I think sometimes people assume that there is no ex-UK cruises available and so give up on the idea of going on a cruise; which is a shame as we, and many other cruise holiday companies, have lots of exciting cruises leaving from the UK!”
Picture courtesy of blmiers2