Consumers liken cruise to ‘happy prison’ in survey
Louise Davies
Fallon says terrorists have ever-wider range of targets
Former defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has warned the industry to expect more impact from terrorism as extremists have an “ever-wider” choice of targets the farther we travel.
He also said that while
governments and resorts had a responsibility to protect customers, holidaymakers had to weigh up the safety risks themselves. “Terrorism is going to have more of an impact in travel,” Fallon said. “In your industry these terrorists
are presented with an ever-wider range of targets – lying on the beach, walking on the promenade, drinking in a bar. “As your customers go farther,
explore more places – with the efficiencies of scale you’ve enabled them to do so – so these destinations become riskier. “That risk will only grow
as terrorists understand the value of publicity, the difficulty of protecting so many people who are determined to enjoy themselves, and indeed understand the dependence of poorer, more-fragile economies on their earnings from tourism.” Fallon said the industry had
Michael Fallon
already thought long and hard about responsible tourism and striking the right balance between informing customers
“The public should not escape responsibility for weighing up the risk for themselves”
and raising awareness. “We also need to encourage
greater understanding of risk itself,” he added. “But you cannot be expected to be able to claim to eliminate risk altogether.” Foreign Office advisories were important, Fallon added, but said it was equally important to “not imply by constant amendment” that every risk is being identified or that every country is absolutely safe all the time. Fallon, former secretary
of state for defence to David Cameron and Theresa May until November when he resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment, said holidaymakers must ensure they have the right insurances and resources in place if things do go wrong.
“The public should not escape
responsibility for weighing up the risk for themselves and their families,” he added. “It is thanks to your efforts that
almost all of them do so safely, efficiently and comfortably. But that challenge is not going to get easier – it’s going to get harder.”
‘Full of racist Daily Mail readers’ and ‘a happy prison’ – these were among reasons given by consumers for why they did not book cruise holidays. Consumers also cited not being able to swim, seasickness, a feeling of being stuck, getting ill, being bored and high cost, according to research shared at ITT that found 60% of holidaymakers were interested in going on a cruise but only 7% were doing so. PA Consulting surveyed
2,000 respondents about their holiday purchasing habits. Louise Davies, customer
experience director for travel, said beach and camping holidays were the most popular, while smaller sectors such as safari and ski were growing in popularity. She said the former was more likely to be influenced by review sites, while the latter was more likely to be inspired by advertising. Overall, “positive customer sentiment” dropped during the comparison and evaluation stages of booking but increased at the inspiration and payment stages, Davies said. Responding to the research, Andy Harmer, Clia’s UK & Ireland senior vice-president membership and director, said the cruise industry had an “opportunity to overcome those misconceptions by working together”. Peter Shanks, Silversea Cruises managing director for the UK and Ireland, branded the survey “sensationalist”. He said: “It’s very annoying when people with little insight into our sector create senseless surveys.” He pointed to Deloitte
research that suggested the cruise sector would grow by 14% this year.
14 June 2018
travelweekly.co.uk 17
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