Cruise guests increasingly seek private, premier shore excursions
Amid record-high spending for onboard and shoreside experiences since the pandemic, demand for premier and private shore excursions has reached new heights.
Guests are increasingly seeking to spend time on land in a comfortable setting with only their immediate travel companions. That often means a private car rather than a tour bus and an itinerary tailored to their particular needs and cravings.
Shore Excursions Group CEO Paul Kiritsy said that trend is growing in Europe in particular.
It doesn't matter the ship size or whether it's contemporary or luxury, said Rinat Glinert of Venture Ashore, another third-party shore excursion provider. But there are two groups she's noticed who are particularly drawn to private experiences: travelers with accessibility challenges and families.
Those groups find the convenience of a private driver and a tailored itinerary to be worth the extra expense, Glinert said.
Tim Harwood, owner of MyExcursions, which specializes in higher-end, personalized experiences, said last year was the company's best ever.
"A lot of people are still just looking for the personal experience to cover some of the main sites, but they don't want to step on a coach or they may be a little less mobile, and they want to have that comfort of knowing they can proceed at their own pace," he said.
Cruise lines are seeing similar shore excursion trends.
Christine Manjencic, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings' vice president of destination services operations, said the company has noticed a shift over the past few years in its guests' shore excursion patterns.
"We are seeing them interested in small-group tours and more immersive excursions such as Go Local experiences where they can truly dive into the culture and history of the destination they are visiting," she said. "Our classic shore excursions where guests can see highlights of the destination with a large group are still popular among first-time visitors, but we are also seeing an increase in guests who prefer a more intimate and exclusive experience that enables them to get that perfect picture for their social media."
Cruise excursions with culinary elements are popular, such as this visit to a vineyard in France. Photo Credit: Venture Ashore
Culinary tours in high demand
One particular type of experience appears to be gaining popularity: anything related to food.
Whether it's cooking classes or a stop at a restaurant with a particularly scenic vista, guests are looking to taste the flavor of a destination on their brief stop off of the ship, said Glinert of Venture Ashore and Harwood of MyExcursions.
"I think that's one of the things that really connects you to a destination," Glinert said. "You have those core memories of something that you did that was speaking to more than just your sense of sight, so I think there's a lot there that's building in the culinary space. We've got requests for people who want to go truffle hunting. All kinds of stuff."
Guests spending more on excursions
The interest in more premium excursions, and excursions overall, coincides with continued increased spending.
Sometimes guests spend more on excursions than the cruise itself, Glinert said.
"They're really looking for something that is going to elevate their cruise experience, and they're willing to pay for that," she said.
Shore Excursions Group, which recently sold its 5 millionth tour, has seen the average order value increase by nearly 40% since the pandemic, Kiritsy said. The company pays commissions and has tracked an increase in travel advisor sales after integrating its own marketing into popular booking platforms advisors use like Odysseus, Revelex and VacationPort. The group's sales are up 50% from such platforms, thanks to a 200% increase in advisors activating Shore Excursions Group offers, Kiritsy said.
All of this means excursions are selling out more quickly and bookings are happening earlier, Kiritsy said.
For Caribbean excursions, guests are booking an average of 10 weeks prior to sailing, and in destinations like Alaska and Europe, it's 14 weeks prior, he said.
In Europe, new restrictions on vehicle sizes for accessing certain sites have also caused excursions to book up because they simply can't accommodate as many people as they previously could, Glinert said.
Shore Excursions Group is suggesting that advisors book excursions early to ensure clients have the experiences they want, Kiritsy said.
"Once the cruise is booked and you know where you're going, we definitely recommend securing the excursions," he said. "They definitely will sell out, and you don't want to miss out on the best excursions in each of those ports."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
ECB Is in Good Position on Rates, Lagarde Tells Monaco Info
(Bloomberg) -- The latest interest-rate moves primes the European Central Bank to meet its medium-term inflation goal, President Christine Lagarde told television station Monaco Info. Next Stop: Rancho Cucamonga! Where Public Transit Systems Are Bouncing Back Around the World ICE Moves to DNA-Test Families Targeted for Deportation with New Contract US Housing Agency Vulnerable to Fraud After DOGE Cuts, Documents Warn Trump Said He Fired the National Portrait Gallery Director. She's Still There. 'We think we have really reached a good position,' she said in an interview broadcast Saturday, adding that the latest olicy decision was 'well calibrated.' Speaking on the sidelines of an event on oceans, Lagarde said that policymakers will be attentive to incoming data 'to know if we need to adjust or not adjust' borrowing costs. 'But I think we are currently well positioned to face moments that will be delicate and very uncertain.' After an eight rate reduction in a year and a total easing of 200 basis points, the cutting campaign is nearing an end, Lagarde has said after the latest decision on Thursday. The ECB is now 'in a good position' to deal with uncertainties ahead, not least due to US trade policies, she said. Officials from across the hawk-dove-spectrum have echoed that the recent cycle is almost, if not completely over. Greece's Yannis Stournaras, one of the most dovish policymakers, told Bloomberg on Friday that the bar for more cuts is 'high,' while more hawkish Boris Vujcic from Croatia said Saturday the ECB is 'nearly done.' The ECB's projections published Thursday foresee inflation to slow to 1.6% in 2026, before returning to 2% in 2027, matching the institution's medium-term target. Growth is expected to strengthen over the forecast horizon. Lagarde also said in the interview that 'the euro is doing well,' adding that the ECB's monetary policy has allowed officials to tame inflation from a peak of more than 10% to the 2% level that is the central bank's target. 'I think we are well calibrated to reach this medium-term goal,' she said. Speaking in a separate interview with TV Monaco, Lagarde said while the ECB's most recent economic projections don't take into account a scenario of 50% tariffs on European goods shipped to the US, such a level 'would be rather disastrous for international trade.' (Updates with comment on trade in final paragraph) Cavs Owner Dan Gilbert Wants to Donate His Billions—and Walk Again The SEC Pinned Its Hack on a Few Hapless Day Traders. The Full Story Is Far More Troubling Trump Considers Deporting Migrants to Rwanda After the UK Decides Not To Is Elon Musk's Political Capital Spent? What Does Musk-Trump Split Mean for a 'Big, Beautiful Bill'? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
No more leprechaun economics: Ireland's tax swindle is finally ending
Donald Trump has sent Ireland to the naughty step. Once the altar boy of American commerce, Dublin now finds itself blacklisted alongside China, Germany and Vietnam, each a prime candidate for tariffs and sanctions. The offence? Running a surplus with the United States. On the face of it, the complaint seems petty. One country sells more than it buys. So what? But Ireland's problem, like the others on Trump's list, is that its surplus rests on a creed that has fallen out of favour. As offshoring hollowed out Middle America, the old Clinton mantra 'It's the economy, stupid' has begun to sound rather less clever than it once did. That, at least, is the mood in Trump's Washington. And judging by his campaign-trail fixation with the word tariff, many Americans agree: a reckoning is overdue. Ireland offers a particularly inviting target. Its surplus owes less to tangible exports than to tax gymnastics. A pill is made in Ireland for 50 cents, sold to a sister company (also in Ireland) for €10, and then shipped to the global market at the same price. The profit is booked in Dublin, while tax collectors elsewhere are left out of pocket. The trick doesn't stop there. Intellectual property is shifted to Irish subsidiaries, global sales are routed through Irish entities, and profits vanish into low or no-tax jurisdictions. Together, these sleights of hand form what we're invited to call the Irish economic miracle – a miracle that, by one estimate, deprives other countries of nearly $20 billion a year in tax revenue. The question being asked in Washington is: who benefits? Ireland, clearly. One in every eight euros of its tax revenue now comes from US firms. That's a fivefold increase since 2010, driven by Ireland's famously 'competitive' tax regime. It accounts for a large slice of a €150 billion bilateral surplus. When Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin visited the Oval Office in March, Trump put it plainly: 'We do have a massive deficit with Ireland, because Ireland was very smart. They took our pharmaceutical companies away.' It's hard to argue with the logic. Ireland has been undeniably clever at attracting American capital. Spending it is another matter. Much of the money sits on Irish books without generating the economic activity one might expect. The state's coffers may be overflowing, but the windfall is narrowly concentrated. Public spending, as ever, has been handled with something shy of brilliance. From roads and hospitals to housing and energy, the services most visible to the public have seen little improvement, despite years of surging resources have been channelled into more headline-friendly ventures: a €350,000 bike shed outside parliament; a vast new hospital project already among Europe's most expensive; and billions annually to accommodate asylum applicants – most of whom, the government has conceded, are economic migrants. The miracle, it seems, left little room for prudence. As every lottery winner learns, easy money tends to breed excess. But with full coffers, Ireland could afford to paper over the cracks. Meanwhile, American tech and pharma giants have flourished. Apple, Microsoft, Pfizer and others have routed billions through Ireland, to the delight of shareholders and pension funds. If Trump moves to close loopholes or impose tariffs, these are the interests he'll have to console ahead of the midterms. The losers, predictably, are the American workers left behind by the long, slow flight of industry and tax revenue. Worse off still are the countries quietly drained by Ireland's magic act. The sums involved are vast. The structures that move them are so complex they can feel impossibly abstract. But the consequences are not. According to modelling by the Universities of St Andrews and Leicester, this tax loss has deprived more than 100,000 children of school attendance and some 1.1 million people of access to basic sanitation. Quibble with the methods if you like, but the core truth is hard to deny: when profits are rerouted, people are short-changed. Not that Dublin seems overly troubled. Only last month, Ireland's Taoiseach declared: 'Ireland earns its living from an open and fair approach to world trade.' The most pious nations often turn out to be the most artful. Ireland rarely misses a chance to sermonise on Gaza, climate justice, or whichever cause currently allows it to cast itself as Europe's moral compass. But as La Rochefoucauld noted, hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue. And by that measure, Ireland has paid handsomely. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Departure of Reform UK chair Zia Yusuf is latest in a long line of Farage fallings-out
Delivered without warning in a 54-word tweet, Zia Yusuf's announcement that he was standing down as Reform UK's chair has seemingly come out of the blue. For close watchers of Nigel Farage's party in recent times, however, the departure of the man largely credited with 'professionalising' its operation before last year's general election performance and last month's local election breakthrough is not a shock. A self-described 'British Muslim patriot', it had not been hard to find Islamophobic commentary about Yusuf among users of Reform UK Facebook groups. Others who left the party – or who have been ejected from it – were angered by his corporate approach, which they blamed for making it a cold house for grassroots veterans and mavericks. In his 11 months as Reform's chair, Yusuf brought with him the ethos and language that might be more associated with a vibrant tech start-up than a hard-right British political party. A businessman who made a fortune from selling his luxury concierge service, Velocity Black, in 2023 for a reported $300m, Yusuf exploded on to the political scene last June by donating a six-figure sum to Farage's party. The two men had known each other for years, having met at a party hosted by the former Ukip treasurer Stuart Wheeler. In his new role at Reform, Yusuf oversaw a restructuring of the party from branch level upwards, pledging to introduce bespoke technology and enforce the tightest vetting of any political party in Britain in a bid to root out cranks and extremists. At rallies, he was a regular speaker, initially wowing the grassroots and earning the discreet praise even of political rivals. He was often one of the few non-white people in the room and was the living embodiment of Farage's insistence that Reform was not a racist party. As recently as Monday, Farage sought to fend off allegations of racism and xenophobia being levelled at Reform, by pointing out at a press conference in Scotland that his party's chair was Scottish born and had 'parents who come from the Indian subcontinent'. But there had long been rumours that all was not well in Reform, not least after the falling-out that led to the departure of its Great Yarmouth MP, Rupert Lowe. Aside from the online abuse, Yusuf is said to have been increasingly at odds with other senior figures in the party. This week's controversy over comments in parliament by Reform's newest MP, Sarah Pochin, in which she called on the prime minister to ban the burqa, appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Yusuf wrote on X that it was a 'dumb' question, given that was not party policy. For some time, Farage and Yusuf appeared to be joined at the hip, frequently appearing side by side, but the party leader did not come in behind his young chair on the Pochin issue. Yusuf's tweet on X announcing his departure was as blunt as it gets. Crediting himself with having 'quadrupled Reform's membership and delivered historic electoral results', he added: 'I no longer believe working to get a Reform government elected is a good use of my time.' The response from Farage – also delivered, as custom now dictates, on X – was, on the surface, laudatory, with the leader describing him as 'a huge factor in our success'. Yet, a paternalistic tone was obvious. 'Politics can be a highly pressured and difficult game and Zia has clearly had enough,' Farage said. Looking back at the longer sweep of the Reform UK leader's political career, the parting of ways is on brand. Farage's time in charge of various parties – from Ukip to the Brexit party – has been littered with fallings-out. There is, as many of his admirers and critics agree, room for only one trailblazer at the top of any Farage-led party. However, at a time when Reform is riding high in the polls, the departure of Yusuf comes with a serious question. Could this be the thread that unravels the seemingly unstoppable Reform juggernaut?
