Cruise Lines Offer Growing Opportunity for New Tour Guide Business
Cruise Lines offer Growing Opportunity for New Tour Guide Business
We hear from many guides that they consider the cruise business a direct competitor to their own guide business.
While the cruise business is highly organized, and can compete with local private guides for business, the cruise lines offer a tremendous and growing opportunity for new guide business.
Naturally this assumes you are located within a reasonable proximity of a port, but cruise lines have expanded their itineraries to include many new stopovers throughout the world. Asia and Africa are two countries that are seeing a great increase in cruise ship arrivals.
Also, there are many river boat cruises that venture far into a country from the coast. As an example, shore excursions are offered into Paris from Rouen which is 2.5 hours away by bus or car. The distance you are willing to travel is up to you but cruise passengers have been conditioned to travel a long way to see that special tourist site or activity.
Take a look at the numbers…
The cruise industry is the fastest growing segment of the travel industry – achieving more than 2,100 percent growth since 1970, when an estimated 500,000 people took a cruise. Approximately 33.6 million people took a cruise vacation in 2008.
The cruise industry’s growth is also reflected in its expanding guest capacity. Nearly 40 new ships were built in the 1980s and during the 1990s, nearly 80 new ships debuted. By the end of 2008, over 100 new ships will have been introduced since 2000.
The cruise industry’s commitment to adding new capacity is based on cruising’s tremendous growth potential. Because only approximately 20 percent of U.S. adults have ever taken a cruise vacation, there remains an enormous untapped market.
And look at the profile of the average cruiser….
Cruisers average 46 years of age, with above-average ($93,000) annual household income. Cruise vacations attract travelers from every state in the nation and from every province in Canada. The states producing the most cruise passengers are Florida, California, Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona and Georgia.
How to tap into this market….
First, find out where the ships that will stop and study their shore excursions. All this can be done using the internet. Do their tours offer the same value and area highlights that you are familiar with? Are they just seeing the highly commercialized stops? Know this as it will help you market your local knowledge of the area.
Ask around and see who is providing the tour services…almost all of the cruise lines contract with local tour companies for the shore excursions they offer. Maybe you can work with the master tour broker for that area, or become the master tour broker yourself!
Write the cruise lines….again, all the contact information is listed online. Tell them about your services, history and credentials. Cruise lines are always looking for quality tour operations to offer unique tours that their competition does not offer.
Participate in online cruise message boards. As an example, Cruise Critic (www.cruisecritic.com) has message boards for each ship and cruise line. Cruisers are always looking for tips on specific ports and local guides. Word of mouth referrals among the cruise lines can be very successful. Again, spending a little time online can have big rewards and your out of pocket expenses is minimal.
Write to some of the major cruise travels agents and let them know about your services. Ninety percent of all cruise vacations are booked through travel agents, and cruise sales account for more than half of all vacation sales among travel agents. Agents are always looking for contacts for these clients. Offer to give the cruise agent a free tour when he/she is in port. This will return itself tenfold in new business.
A complete list of cruise lines and their ships can be found
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cruise_ships
