The term “Pirate Excursion” is a fairly recent phenomenon and refers to the arrangement of a NON official Cruise Line operated Excursions. Whereas "Pirate Excursions" are not bound by any particular Cruise Industry standard, certainly not endorsed by the Industry, whereby often unlicensed or unqualified Tourist Guides are utilized and generally such Excursions are NOT recommended for a number of qualifying reasons, which this article will clearly identify.
In essence the rise of Pirate Excursions has come about due to the increase in popularity of the Internet. The set ups themselves are often created by cast aside and/or struggling Tour Agents / Operators or even Touts seeking to jump on the Cruise Industry bandwagon from a parasitical perspective, without the consent of the Cruise Lines, in conflict with the operation and against the spirit of the Cruise Industry itself.
We all know that in the last decade the growth of Cruise Tourism has reached truly staggering proportions and in recent years at least this is in stark contrast to practically all other major recession impacted Tourism sectors. Such success is built on the foundation of an excellent value service for the money the Cruise Guest pays, offering exceptional vacation diversity and a host of other advantages over the average land vacation.
The Cruise market is growing at an average of 10 new Mega vessel new builds each successive year for the past 3 decades, all between 2,000 - 5,000 passengers in lower berth capacity size, which extrapolates into literally hundreds of thousands of new Cruise Passengers annually.
In Europe (Mediterranean and
Northern Europe particularly) Excursions comprise (or should do for well managed vessels) 50% – 65% of the total On Board Revenue. In turn On Board Revenue should represent (for a well run Cruise Line at least, depending upon the model) one third of the total income generation, with the remaining two thirds originating from cabin sales. Clearly, we are talking in the millions when we speak about Excursion projected revenue and having personally managed a fleet of 8 vessels (former Festival Cruises fleet) where all the On Board Revenue is concerned, Excursion performance is quintessential to the overall income success and it's the blood lifeline of the Company. To illustrate this On Board Revenue in many respects pays for:
- The salaries on board
- Fuel consumption
- Port fees
- Maintenance
- Safety and Environmental protection
- In addition to the Lions share of the operational costs
In fact in the old days (I'm showing my age now) many of the above costs were actually paid in cash on board by the Chief Purser.
There is far more to organizing Excursions on a global scale than the average Cruise Guest is actually aware of and one of the key components to a successful itinerary is the ability to synchronize Excursions, thereby visiting the key attractions of the destinations frequented, in synergy with the timing and complexity of the on board operation, meal times and activities etc.
With potentially millions of borderline Excursion Guests at stake, opportunistic Agencies and Operators that have generally not invested anything into the Cruise Industry, the local destination they operate in or the Cruise product, have organized themselves to feed-off the mega vessels that visit the port cities around the world, by offering cheaper copy tours of their own.
At Festival Cruises we counted the Pirate Excursions and calculated (by dedicating Crew to count people and buses) the annual losses caused by Pirate Excursions (in 2002) to be in the region of 3 million euro. After implementing a raft of proactive measures to counter the issue, we managed to reduce this dramatic loss in 2003 by 2 million euro. Since this time, the situation has deteriorated significantly on a worldwide scale and the bottom line of Cruise Lines is being seriously threatened by Pirate Excursions, which will only translate into other charges going up in the long run for the Cruise Guest.
Now, many Cruise Guests reading this article will immediately reply with a knee jerk reaction and say that Cruise Line operated Excursions are simply “too expensive”. What is the harm of participating in the cheaper "Web Options" on offer via the Internet? There are even so called Cruise friendly Websites promoting this behavior just because it’s cheaper! The reality however is that there is a host of qualified reasons NOT to participate in Pirate Excursions. Here below are the Top 8!
Challenges and consequences of Pirate Excursions
1. NON QUALIFIED GUIDES
Pirate Excursions are commonly arranged utilizing non-qualified or unlicensed Guides leaving no opportunity to regulate standards. The motive for this is usually to reduce Tour Costs and undercut Cruise Lines. Such practices do not respect the rights of licensed Guides, local laws and the study/work they have to do in order to obtain a professional license.
The World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations
WFTGA is concerned about this issue, as Tourist Guides are professionals and their trade should be respected on a global scale. On this issue and in balance, we advocate that Cruise Lines in turn only use licensed Tourist Guides, preferably those that have been certificated by the
WFTGA for
Cruise Guide Training.
2. INSURANCE
There are often Insurance issues, whereby in the unlikely event of an accident the local small Agency and/or sales agent often do not possess adequate coverage if any. All major Cruise Lines by comparison feature Insurance that covers at least 1-3 million USD. This is often a requirement when contracting Agents to conduct official Cruise Line Excursions, depending upon the Cruise Line’s internal policy.
Pirate Excursions are generally low cost and Insurance is one of the factors that is often compromised and there are no set standards. Moreover, Guests participating in non Cruise Ship arranged Excursions are not covered by the Cruise Line or ships Insurance, as they take matters into their own hands and their actions go against the Cruise Lines recommendations.
3. DELAYED DISPATCH
As Pirate Excursions do not operate with the cooperation or endorsement of the Cruise Line, they are dispatched at the very end of the official Tour dispatch, mixed with the general disembarkation. This can extrapolate to a significant delay for those on Private Excursions, especially so on Mega Cruise Lines with up to 5,000 passengers. Timing can be critical for certain Excursions, especially for short calls.
Cruise Guests usually complain about this and there are all kinds of potential timing consequences. For example if a Pirate Excursion is late returning to the vessel, the ship will not wait, as it’s not a ship authorized Excursion. The organizers of the Pirate Excursions are unlikely to compensate Cruise Guests either. With a late dispatch this can be a common, yet major issue. In retaliation "Pirate Excursion" organizers are even giving written and/or verbal instructions to passengers that purchase their online alternatives to aggressively complain and cause a mini riot on board, which can lead to a stampede causing safety concerns. This is one of the ugly sides of our Cruise age, as there is nothing worse than Cruise Guests who choose to buy cheap Pirate Tours on the Internet and then demand the same rights as Guests who ay for the priority on board (indirectly contributing to the Cruise Line and Industry - thereby keeping overall costs down for everyone).
4. SHIP GUARANTEE
Most Cruise Lines (I don't personally know any to the contrary) guarantee that regardless how late a Cruise Ship organized Excursion returns to the vessel, that the Guests will not miss the ships departure. This guarantee is easier for the Cruise Lines to uphold, as they manage the dispatch and the whole operation including the itinerary, so they can provide such guarantees to cover all eventualities.
It's important to appreciate that most Cruise Lines coordinate Excursion departures with traffic and local conditions in mind. The Excursion Department on board manage the dispatch which is a complex operation, especially on larger ships with multiple nationalities that assures a timely start too.
5. SECURITY
In most cases for ports around the world, which is implied within ISPS standards, only the official Tour Operator of the Cruise Line is permitted to enter the port with coaches (preferably parked adjacent to the ship) with official Tourist Guides for the convenience of the Guests on Security grounds.
In contrast, as "Pirate Excursion Operators" do not manage the dispatch, the coaches are sometimes parked outside the port (rightfully so, as all traffic not authorized by the ship or port directly is in effect a security risk). Ports that let coaches inside the Port area, which are not authorized by the ship take a security risk and should check better their ISPS code of conduct.
Pirate Excursion Operators plainly and simply do not have the right or permission to represent the Cruise Ship. Clearly parking the coaches outside the port is less convenient and may cause further delay and hassle to embark coaches. However, imagine if just any operator that was not invited by the Cruise Ship could enter the port, this would be a security breach and in the light of terrorism concerns, it would be a potentially serious risk.
Other Security concerns are featured in point 3 (Delayed Dispatch).
6. SHIP ACTIVITIES
Pirate Excursions are not coordinated with the ships activities on board either, such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, special on board activities, events, animation and entertainment etc.
Often people on Pirate Excursions return to the ship only to find that they missed the main Restaurant eating times or even a major activity. Again complaints are generated, even though the Cruise Line has no control over what Pirate Operators do.
All quality officially executed Excursions operated by the Ship should actually inform Guests on the return to the ship, of the activities that afternoon and/or evening. This is again covered by the
Cruise Guide Training course endorsed by the WFTGA and created by
Progress International.
7. REVENUE
In essence Cruise Lines cover only the fundamental operational and administrative costs or most of it with the Cruise ticket itself, of course depending upon the Cruise Line market concerned. In real terms the actual profit comes from the generation of On Board Revenue, which as previously indicated, for a well managed operation represents one third of the income overall. Hence, roughly speaking when many Cruise Lines sell a cabin, it is usually (note there are many variables) subsidized to a degree in view of the On Board Revenue potential.
Excursions represent a significant part of this essential On Board Revenue potential for the Cruise Lines, who depend on it pay salaries, fuel, maintenance and general costs etc (described previously in the introduction). Pirate Excursions and Guests that purchase them essentially wage economic war with the Cruise Line in addition to causing the above-mentioned challenges, because when a Pirate Excursion goes wrong, the Cruise Guest still generally complains to the Cruise Line.
8. CONVENIENCE
There is nothing more convenient and satisfying than organizing Excursions with the Ship directly. It gives the Cruise Guest peace of mind that their money also supported the Crew on board, the Cruise Line itself and the Industry as a whole. Priority dispatch, a high level of Insurance, a Ships guarantee and service follow up are all factors that make purchasing an Excursion on board highly convenient.
In the event a Cruise Guest is not 100% happy with the excursions, the matter can be taken up with the Excursion Department on board or even escalated to the Senior Management. There is nowhere for the ships staff to hide and they have every intention and focus to ensure the absolute satisfaction of all Cruise Guests.
SUMMARY
There is a general feeling within the Cruise Industry that something needs to be done about "Pirate Excursions" as the activity itself is parasitical by nature and does not help the Industry in the grand scheme of things. The only industry-wide standard that even touches the topic is
Cruise Guide Training.
We welcome your comments.
