cruise tourism economics
2025 will see 320 cruise ships arrive in Victoria, about a 30+% increase over the last pre-Covid cruise season of 2019. While the footprint of cruise tourism is large, a study by Stand.Earth shows cruise tourism economic benefits are overinflated, dwarfed by the benefits of non-cruise tourism (defined as stay-over and day-tripper tourism.)
The 2022 study, based on data from 2019, the last full cruise season in Victoria, shows that cruise tourism contributes less than 2% of total tourism spending in Greater Victoria. The study does not examine the high cost of unlimited cruise tourism: pollution, traffic, garbage, noise, damage to infrastructure, and threats to public health inflict demonstrable harm to the port’s high-density residential host neighbourhood of James Bay.
High-impact, low-value cruise tourism isn’t just a local issue - it’s a global problem. Read about impacts on Rotterdam, Key West, and Norway.
VICTORIA: what are the numbers?
In 2019, the last full cruise season in Victoria pre-Covid:
Cruise tourism spending totaled CA$ 137.1 million while non-cruise tourism spent nearly CA$ 3 billion (CA$ 2.936,7 billion) or over 20 times more.
Cruise tourism in Victoria constituted nearly 12 percent of total number of visitors, but cruise-related tourists were responsible for less than 2 percent of tourism spending in the region.
Non-cruise tourism created nearly 31 times more jobs (37,411 vs. 1210) than cruise operations in Greater Victoria.
Non-cruise tourism in Greater Victoria is responsible for generating nearly 25 times more in government taxes than cruise tourism.
The report, by Stand.Earth, is called: MISSING THE BOAT: COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF CRUISE & NON-CRUISE TOURISM IN GREATER VICTORIA, B.C. download (PDF 2.2 MB)
ROTTERDAM
A study on the costs and benefits of cruise ships in Rotterdam found that cruise tourism is not that profitable for the port. The cost of a cruise ship trip is not covered at all by ticket prices, but by what is spent on board. Hence, cruise companies do not want visitors to spend money in the city at all. Cruise ships in Rotterdam: not that profitable | Erasmus University Rotterdam
KEY WEST
A 2020 study in Key West produced similar results as Victoria. Stayover tourists in Key West and other ports spend far more per day and per visit than cruise tourists. Cruise tourism accounts for well under 10% of total tourism spending in Key West, while land-based tourism accounts for over 90%. There was no evidence to support the industry’s claim that passengers ‘convert’ into longer term, higher value, overnight visitors in Key West or the Caribbean. Economics-of-Cruise-Tourism-Key-West
NORWAY
A study interviewing cruise line passengers about their expenditures found that cruise passengers spend significantly less at their destination than other tourists. Belly full, purse closed: Cruise line passengers' expenditures - ScienceDirect