Destination is the most important factor to cruisers

A survey has found that 49% of people booking a cruise holiday said that the most important factor is a ship’s port of calls.

The survey was conducted on behalf of Travel Weekly and indicates that for holidaymakers the most important consideration they make when booking their cruise is where in the world the ship will visit. The second most important factor was deemed to be the overall cost of the cruise, with 15% of people choosing this as the most important factor.

It came as a surprise that discounts and special offers made little impact on the choices holidaymakers made when booking their cruise, with only 3% stating it was a factor, while 25% claimed discounts were least important to them.

Service was an important consideration to 13% of cruisers whilst only 7% make the choice based on the ship, with only 5% choosing according to a specific cruise operator.

As always with holidaymakers, tipping is a sensitive matter and two thirds of Britons said that they would prefer to tip the staff that had impressed them during their cruise rather than be made to pay an automatic tip added to the total cost of the cruise or at the end of the holiday.

Cruise ship staff will be pleased to know that 46% of people feel that 10% is an appropriate amount to tip, whereas 28% believe 5% is better. Almost one fifth of generous holidaymakers tip 15% or more.

TNS head of travel and tourism Tom Costley said: "What is counter intuitive from our research is the apparent lack of loyalty to specific cruise operators, especially in a market where there appears to be a significant degree of repeat purchase. "Also unexpected is the apparent lack of appeal of discounts and special offers - particularly in an industry that is dominated by deals like these."

The survey of 2,059 respondents was conducted face to face among representatives of the UK adult population.