MILLIONS ON CRUISES

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 3

MILLIONS ON CRUISES

BRITAIN’S NEW HOBBY.

LONDON, September 10

More than 250 holiday cruises have been, or will be before the end of the season, carried out by British liners.

That is one of the outstanding facts in a great new enterprise that the shipping, industry has developed at one of the most difficult periods of its history to “keep the stoke-hold fires burning.’’

The figure may be doubled if one takes into account “sea-holidays” in liners running on their usual services. and cruises in foreign liners which call at British ports or otherwise seek to attract British passengers. It has been calculated that these would bring the total of this year’s holiday cruises well above 500, and the total of seagoing holiday-mak-ers io some 175,000, who will spend about. £5,000.000.

it is the newest idea, in holidays, for this is only its second real season, and all the shipping companies engaged in it agree that the “boom” has only just begun. They agree, too, that it has done much to save the industry in a time of depression, for it has meant constant work for liners that otherwise would have been idle, and employment for crews that would otherwise have been laid off. A well-known shipping authority who is in a position to know all that is being done by all the companies, gave me yesterday some interesting figures that may be taken as authoritative.

“By the end of (he year,” he said, “the total number of these special holiday cruises in British liners, by thirteen lines engaged in the traffic, will, as nearly as J can estimate, be 251. That figure does not include long trips, such as round the world, but just the short cruises of a few days or weeks.

ASTONISHING FIGURES

“To get a further idea of how the idea has caught on, one should add thirty-six cruises by foreign liners calling at British ports and picking up British passengers, and fifty-seven cruises by foreign liners which sail from foreign ports, but advertise in British papers, and so cater for British passengers. “Then there has been a further development —the ‘sea holiday’—by which I mean those trips out and home in liners running on their usual services. The growing vogue for seaholidays has greatly benefited lines running regular services to the Mediterranean, Madeira, Norway, the Baltic, the West Indies, and South America. A recent count showed 182 such long or short voyages whch come definitely under the category of holiday trips. “So we get a total of 530 advertised ‘cruises’ or ‘sea holidays.’ It would be a fair estimate, and I make it with a good knowledge of the liners engaged and the business done, to say that this accounts for 175,000 passengers. Of these more than 156,000 would be holiday cruise passengers in British liners from British ports. “The fares paid differ very much—from a £lO cruise to one costing many times that 'amount —but a careful calculation shows that for cruises from British ports alone at least £2,750,000 has been paid, and with the other- sea holidays mentioned the expenditure will be at least £2,850,000. “Add to that shore trips, says £2 a head, tips, says 10 per cent of passage money, drinks and other purchases, say £2 a- head, new clothes, £2 a head (probably a serious underestimate for women passengers!), and railway fares to port, and you get a total expenditure on the cruises of soma £5,000,000.

“The most popular cruises? Of the 254 cruises in British liners from British ports, I find that 177 were to the Mediterranean or Madeira, and 31 to Norway or the Baltic. “Forty-four British diners of a total tonnage of 758,493 have been engaged in this holiday traffic. Most, of them, with their crews, including stewards and others, of well over 20,000, would otherwise have been idle for many months.

“The most popular months are, of course, from April to September. The British cruises this year in that season were April 21, May 21, June 44, July G 7, August 52, and September 35.”

Inquiries among the chief lines engaged in this holiday traffic showed general agreement that it has been the outstanding feature of 1933 and that it has come to stay. “Since the beginning of the year,” I was told by the Canadian Pacific Company, “we have carried out thirtysix cruises, ami the season is not finished yet.

“The most popular have been the thirteen-day cruises to the' Mediterranean, and some passengers have made two cruises straight off, rebooking and going out again in the same liner. We had one cruise to Norway in which twenty-two passengers booked for the same liner’s next trip, which was to the Mediterranean.

WINTER SAILINGS

“Wo are already making plans for next year. In the spring, for instance, th© Duchess of Richmond will sail from Southampton on January 2G for a. twenty-eight days’ cruise to the West Indies, with sixteen ports of call; the Duchess of Atholl will leave for the Mediterranean on February 15, March 8, and March 29. Then the Empress of Britain, the great luxury liner, will start on January 18 another cruise round the world. Later in the year, of course, all the other popular cruises will be carried out.” The Cunard company may be regarded as the pioneer, of the short holiday cruise, for ft is generally taken that the idea began with the Christmas cruise of the Mauretania three years ago. “This year, our actual summer cruise season,” I was told by a a member of the Cunard staff, “began on April 13, and when it ends on October 25 wo shall have carried out twentyone cruises, with a total mileage of 65,000. The most popular cruise bs me thirteen days for 15 guineas and upwards to the Mediterranean or Norway. Wo have thirteen of these cruises, with the Mediterranean as the most popular of all. “How the vogue has grown is shown by the fact that last year we had eleven cruises, compared with this year’s twenty-one, and there is every prospect that next year will see an even bigger increase.’’ The Blue Star company reported their Arandora Star “full to capacity” on all her cruises, from January to December.

“Cruising has become an all-tho-

year-round business,” 1 was told at the Blue Star offices. . “In our experience, the Norway trip, especially those extending to e North Cape and Iceland, with an opportunity at the right season of seeing the Midnight Sun, is even more popular than the Mediterranean. It is quite common for passengers to book up the same cruise for next year. Five well-known P. and O. lineis have taken 21,000 passengers on twenty-seven cruises this season, chiefly to the Mediterranean, and a similar programme has already been drawn up for next year. The thirteenday cruises having proved the most popular a speeding-up is to be carried out on some of them to give passengers an opportunity of reaching yet more distant places of interest.