Cruise market hits rocky waters

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Poor weather meant seven cruise ships had their visits to Guernsey cancelled this summer, meaning 12,000 passengers didn't set foot on the island.

The cancellations saw a 22% decline in the number of cruise visitors coming onto the island compared to the same period last year, and that trend was also reflected in the number of visiting yachtsmen, which fell by 10% (1,000 people) during the important third quarter months of the year.

That was after a very successful second quarter, where the market increased by 22% on the previous year.

Director of Marketing and Tourism at VisitGuernsey Mike Hopkins said it was a disappointing end to the year's cruise season.

Pictured: Mike Hopkins and Deputy Joe Mooney of the Economic Development Committee. 

"Quarter Three proved to be a challenging quarter for the cruise market," he said. "Of the 42 cruise ships scheduled to call in Guernsey during the three months ending in September, seven were cancelled due to poor weather conditions, representing almost 12,000 lost passengers. This is a particularly disappointing end to the cruise season, following the strong double-digit growth of +22% experienced during the previous quarter (April to June 2019). 

“Day visitors travelling by air and ferry, however, saw a healthy increase during Quarter Three, with almost 20% more leisure day visitors travelling to Guernsey versus Q3 2018 and over a third more visitors visiting friends and relatives on day trips.”

Overall, the total market of departing visitors including cruise and visiting yacht passengers stood at 184,009 visitors during Q3 2019 – a fall of 5% versus Q3 2018. This drop was attributed to the missing cruise ships. 

In the year to the end of the September, total visitors excluding those travelling on cruise and yachts, remained static at 237,244 visitors, with staying leisure visitors increasing by 2% during 2019. Including cruise and yacht visitors, total visitors were 1% lower than in the same period in 2018.

Pictured top: Mike Hopkins inset over one of the 35 ships that did visit the island.