CRUISE SHIPS
cruIsInG TO DarTmOuTh
by Tricia Daniels. CHAIR OF CRUISE GROUP DARTMOUTH & DART HARBOUR BOARD MEMBER
Were plenTIFul. Then GraDually, TImes FelT leaner. having cruise companies feature the town has always had multiple benefits. Whilst many passengers take to coaches and visit local places of interest, they still have free time to look around Dartmouth and spend money - and the position of the jetty, right in the town, has always been a plus. But there are also less obvious benefits. We know that some visitors like to come to Dartmouth and see the ships for themselves, thereby adding to our economy but in addition, passengers are known to spend a day in a port and then return independently for a few days or longer. even now, we cannot be entirely sure
F
IVe Or sIx years aGO, DarTmOuTh’s ‘VIsITInG shIps’ lIsT seemeD TO sTreTch acrOss The summer anD shIp arrIVals
to 4,000 guests, we realised quickly that our best match was for the smaller niche market. We needed to make overtures to companies that cater for guests who see themselves as ‘travellers’ and who want to learn about the areas they visit, understand the history and to appreciate their surroundings. With the backing of Dart harbour authority, other
2015 will see
why our harbour appeared to lose favour, although research indicates that the town had become reliant on a small number of companies that made repeat visits into our river ( sometimes up to 6 a season), as they offered the same itinerary over and over again. Figures started to decline when one of these regulars was sold and re-positioned permanently to the antarctic and another company also moved its vessel to another geographical area, where, for now, it remains. We are all aware of the attractiveness of our town and the area, so it became clear that time needed to be spent in understanding the cruise industry, so that we could improve our situation and raise our profile. matching cruise lines to the destination is vital and as the trend is towards larger and larger resort ships, holding up
the arrival of 4 ships over a three month
period, bringing old and new friends
important local institutions were approached to see if there was interest in forming a group that would work together on the situation. This time last year, the newly- formed cruise Group Dartmouth was busy formulating plans to understand what needed to be done. It was a long list but there was a positivity about doing everything we could to put the town on the cruise industry’s radar, as a unique and interesting place to spend a day. right from the start, we’ve had a stable
core team ( made up of representatives from the BID, Dhna, the TIc, as well as our mayor) enhanced on arrival days by the TIc volunteers, the town crier and a variety of jetty-side entertainers. Whilst
we came to the project with a lot of industry knowledge and research under our belts, the team members have still learned a lot in the past year from other ports - and also have managed to conjure up a few surprises for guests, such as Devon goodie bags.
The initial meeting of Cruise Group Dartmouth
It soon became clear that this was a job with two distinct parts: creating an arrival experience unique to each individual ship and the behind-the scenes efforts to network and build relationships with the cruise companies whose guests, we felt, would most appreciate
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