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Will cruises come of age in Asia? 
Will cruises come of age in Asia?
Incoming cruise travellers from
four major international cruise liners will generates just over 90,000
visits to Thailand in 2010.
Association of Thai Travel Agents
honorary secretary general and Regale International Travel managing
director, Jumpol Chadavadh, who specialises in cruise ground handling
services, presented the case for attracting more international cruise
operators, at last week’s Asean Hotel & Restaurant Association
Seminar held in Bangkok.
According to Mr Jumpol, Cunard; P&O
Cruise and Costa generate 90,296 passengers. Of this, 30,248 passengers
disembark in Phuket, 6,628 in Samui and 53,416 in Laem Chabang, 20 km
from Pattaya and 100 km from Bangkok.
CruiseMr Jumpol, said the
cruise industry is the fastest-growing category in the leisure travel
market. Since 1980, the industry has experienced an average annual
passenger growth of approximately 7.5% a year.
Globally, cruise
passengers represent 13.2 million visits. The industry forecasts 13.5
million passengers in 2009, a 2.3% increase over 2008.
"From the
demand side, Asia has a chance to become a new cruise hub and we should
be looking at how to develop facilities to attract this market."
"China,
Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam have seaports, or are currently
building them. It is a very serious challenge for us all."
According
to Mr Jumpol, a typical cruise ship carries up to 2,000 passengers and
800 crew members and generates an estimated US$190,476 in passenger and
crew expenditures during a single port-of-call.
"As a result we
should focus on offering turnaround ports for cruise companies. If we
just welcome cruise passengers for port of calls then we are missing the
real challenge," Mr Jumpol said.
However, the body of industry
opinion suggests that cruises are not as profitable for developing
economies, when compared with other forms of tourism. Cruise passengers
sleep on board with only a small percentage using hotel services.
Ground
handling, tours, and even shopping are tightly controlled with
shore-leave in a country limited to a day outing to the nearest tourist
destination. Overnight options are more likely at popular destinations
such as Singapore and Hong Kong where cruises start or end. However,
Phuket is attracting cruise ships that stay one to two nights giving
passengers an option to go onshore and stay in partner hotels.Source: http://www.ttrweekly.com/site/2009/09/will-cruises-come-of-age-in-a...
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