[Corrie22]

buying a beer and a couple of T-shirts is not keeping them going....cruise passengers do not spend money...that's the whole purpose of taking a cruise in the first place

[sacreole]

It appears that the Key West community wants to foster a more sustainable, high value-added tourism that preserves the charms of the “Conch Republic.”

[peta2013]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

CG, that's not money...and they are crowding out the tourists that do spend money

Money is a hotel for a week, all meals and drinks, rent a moped, dinner booze cruise, and shopping bags, etc

Was going to argue against you and other posters but actually i see your point. The real money is in hotel, care rental, days-of-shopping, etc. 3000 people swooping in for a few hours buying cheap drinks and souvenir crap is high transaction / low value.

Hopefully it works out for Key West. Might be a careful what you wish for scenario.

[beach43ofus]

I think Key West made the right call.

I went to Bar Harbor 2 Summer's ago, and the cruise ships overran that small town. I'll never go back to Bar Harbor again due to the cruise ship traffic. They lost me, and my $.

[BNBR]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

bottom line....cruise passengers do not spend money...they eat and sleep on the ship

The local municipality charges landing fees for each passenger. There is a lot of revenue outside of hotel stays that cruise ship passengers bring. Plus, they pile in to the restaurants, go on tours, buy gifts, visit the aquarium, among a multitude of other things they spend money on.

Though I still do agree that Key West did the right thing. But let's not pretend it isn't going to be crushing for a decent amount of people/jobs on the island.

[BNBR]

Originally Posted by peta2013

Was going to argue against you and other posters but actually i see your point. The real money is in hotel, care rental, days-of-shopping, etc. 3000 people swooping in for a few hours buying cheap drinks and souvenir crap is high transaction / low value.

Hopefully it works out for Key West. Might be a careful what you wish for scenario.

That's not all they do. They pile in to the restaurants and pay normal prices... They fill up the aquarium. They fill up the trolleys and tours. They pay for offshore boating excursions. Fishing trips/guides (expensive). They rent equipment on the beaches. Kayak tours. Catamaran tours. Jet skiis, parasailing, museums, etc. Don't you think the restaurants participating in the pub crawls do so because it drives revenue and jobs?

The idea that cruise passengers aren't spending money on anything but $5 shirts and a cheap drink is without merit. There is a substantial amount of tour operators that will suffer greatly. Likely lose their businesses, forced to lay people off, sell equipment and boats, etc.

A big part of cruising is booking excursions, FYI. Thousands of people book paid tours and activities on the island, and that's just directly through the cruise line. With many booking on their own.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by peta2013

Was going to argue against you and other posters but actually i see your point. The real money is in hotel, care rental, days-of-shopping, etc. 3000 people swooping in for a few hours buying cheap drinks and souvenir crap is high transaction / low value.

Hopefully it works out for Key West. Might be a careful what you wish for scenario.

1. You don't ever rent a car in key west, parking sucks and a scooter can get you wherever you want to go.
2. If you own a bar, you are thrilled to get 3000 people drinking at your bar or even on your block
3. Key West isn't a "days of shopping" destination, you literally can see duplicates of everything from block to block.

I think cruise ships with thousands of people aboard are going to be a thing of the past, same with movie theaters and throw in a few failed airlines. New President will shut things down even tighter, even if a vaccine is made how long/how many will take it?

Key West voted on something that probably won't matter anyway.......

[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

They do keep the retail establishments going however.

Ya they do.

[Corrie22]

part of the argument for banning larger ships...has been cruise passengers do not spend money

granted, they do pay landing fees, etc......but that money does not go in the pockets of the business owners or the economy that way

....and, it's a whole lot more people, dunno how the math works out

=======

" They also argue that cruise ship passengers do not spend as much money while in Key West as do other types of tourists.

“Cruise ship passengers spend an average of only $32 in Key West versus $550 by all other tourists. It takes 17 cruise ship passengers to match the spending 1 non-cruise tourist,” the website claims. “Cruise ship passengers make up 50% of all tourists in Key West but only 8% of all tourist spending.”

Left out of their equation is the fact that each of the 390 ships which visited Key West last year — carrying 1.2 million guests and crew members — paid a per-guest tax, as well as docking fees."

https://cruiseradio.net/key-west-loo...-cruise-ships/

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"Even though cruise ships bring 50% of all visitors to Key West, they bring only 8% of all tourist spending.

On average, cruise ship passengers spend only $32 per person. Overnight visitors spend $550 per person."

https://www.safercleanerships.com/economy

[BNBR]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

part of the argument for banning larger ships...has been cruise passengers do not spend money

granted, they do pay landing fees, etc......but that money does not go in the pockets of the business owners or the economy that way

....and, it's a whole lot more people, dunno how the math works out

=======

" They also argue that cruise ship passengers do not spend as much money while in Key West as do other types of tourists.

“Cruise ship passengers spend an average of only $32 in Key West versus $550 by all other tourists. It takes 17 cruise ship passengers to match the spending 1 non-cruise tourist,” the website claims. “Cruise ship passengers make up 50% of all tourists in Key West but only 8% of all tourist spending.”

Left out of their equation is the fact that each of the 390 ships which visited Key West last year — carrying 1.2 million guests and crew members — paid a per-guest tax, as well as docking fees."

https://cruiseradio.net/key-west-loo...-cruise-ships/

-------------


"Even though cruise ships bring 50% of all visitors to Key West, they bring only 8% of all tourist spending.

On average, cruise ship passengers spend only $32 per person. Overnight visitors spend $550 per person."

https://www.safercleanerships.com/economy

I feel like these arguments suggest a one or the other type of scenario. It doesn't work that way. Cruise ships were bringing that $32/pp on top of the existing $550... Though I highly doubt people are spending $550/pp every day as a land tourist. But it's not like Key West was giving up land tourists because of cruise ships.

Anyways, $32/pp is $100k every day pumped in to a very small local economy. And that's going directly to restaurants, tour operators, retail, etc. As opposed to mostly lodging costs that is funneled away by large corporate hotel owners. I'd wager the difference between cruise ship passengers and land tourists isn't quite as drastic in practical terms.

If you own a tour company that works with the cruises, this may have destroyed your business.