Barbados still high on cruise list

Barbados has maintained its high visitor satisfaction rating from cruise ship passengers.

It landed a “very satisfied” score of 8.2 out of ten from cruise visitors who responded to a survey of the latest Economic Contribution Of Cruise Tourism To The Destination Economies study.

This is the identical score Barbados received in the most recent survey in 2018 from the research conducted on behalf of the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) and 33 destinations, including Barbados.

“Cruise passengers were very satisfied with their ‘overall visit’ to Barbados (8.2) and the visit ‘meeting expectations’ (7.7),” said the study done by United States-based Business Research & Economic Advisors (BREA).

“‘Guided tours’ (or shore excursions) received a ‘very satisfied’ mean score of 8.6. Additionally, the high ratings in ‘knowledge of guide’ (9) and ‘value of tours’ (8.1) indicates visitors to Barbados were very satisfied with their onshore excursions.”

The report said that among other key conclusions concerning visit satisfaction were the following:

• Passenger interactions with residents and store employees were very positive as the mean scores for ‘friendliness of residents’ (8.3) and ‘courtesy of employees’ (8.5) were high.

• Passengers were also very satisfied with the ‘historic sites’ (7.7), a ‘variety of things to see and do’ (7.7) and the ‘overall shopping experience’ (7.8). They recorded similar satisfaction ratings for the ‘overall prices’ (7.3).

BREA said Barbados’ lowest scores were for passengers saying they were ‘likely to return for a landbased visit’ (5.3) and their ‘likelihood of recommending to a friend’ (6). However, the reporters explained that both of these ratings “are similar to the ratings of other destinations”.

The study also shared that consistent with the overall industry trends, the average age of cruise passengers visiting Barbados

“is down from 61 years old in the last study to 52 years old in this study”.

“About 64 per cent of the respondents are between the ages of 25 and 64. Half (51 per cent) of the responding passengers in the study for Barbados are residents of the United States; 18 per cent are from the United Kingdom and 11 per cent are residents of Canada,” the report added.

Other information from the passenger surveys indicated that “of those who completed the survey, 65 per cent stated this was their first visit to Barbados; three in five (60 per cent) of those who went ashore made at least one purchase while ashore other than a tour; the typical cruise party consisted of two passengers and spent an average of 4.6 hours ashore.

“More than half (57 per cent) of the passengers who went ashore purchased a shore excursion. Seventythree per cent of passengers who purchased a tour did so through their cruise line, eight per cent purchased their tour on shore and 19 per cent purchased their tour through some other means (travel agent, travel site),” the study reported.

“An equal number of tours purchased were visits to ‘historical or cultural sites’ (31 per cent) and ‘beach day activities’ (32 per cent). The key reasons why some did not purchase a tour include they prefer to tour on their own (56 per cent) and they felt the tours were poor value (15 per cent).” (SC)

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