What stays ashore

Averages hide a lot

In Copenhagen, interviewed passengers report spending an average of €56 each ashore, but the median is only around €28: more than one in five (22%) spends nothing.^[1] Across the Caribbean and Latin America, estimated average spending per visit is $103.83, ranging from $42.58 in Trinidad to $191.26 in St. Maarten.^[4] In Vanuatu, according to the report's estimates, a passenger's average daily spend falls from about AUD 96 in Port Vila to 45 in Luganville and 11 on Mystery Island.^[5]

The APEC study, which works with spending assumptions rather than measured values, points the same way: in its examples a transit passenger spends $29 at a tender-served call and $140 at a major or flagship port, and average direct spending per call ranges from $0.07 million to $1.79 million depending on the type of destination.^[7]

The average figure for "a cruise passenger" is therefore of little use: spending varies widely between ports, between people and between kinds of visit.

How people visit matters more than who they are

The Copenhagen study, which combines GPS and questionnaires for 183 passengers, finds no significant link between age, education or income and the decision to spend. Behaviour matters instead: making at least one stop longer than 40 minutes is linked to odds of spending about 17 times higher than making only short stops.^[1] Shops (about 35%) and food and drink (about 32%) account for two thirds of spending, while only 5.9% goes on transport, which the authors link to the quay's central location.^[1]

In Valencia, those who spent report about €36 per head on average, for a stay ashore of almost five hours. The lowest-spending group (about €18) stays ashore under three hours and almost always in a single area; the highest-spending groups are mostly independent visitors who stay 6–7 hours and visit several areas.^[2] Independent visitors spend more than those on guided excursions, but the gap is significant only up to the median spending level.^[2]

In Vanuatu too, spending is correlated with hours ashore, up to about seven, and with satisfaction with the variety of things to do; between 20% and 33% of those who had made purchases say they would have spent more with a wider choice.^[5]

The port's role shapes where money is spent

The comparison between Lisbon and Livorno shows two models. Lisbon works as a destination port: cruise visitors mainly tour the city, and only 26% of respondents had bought a tour before landing. Livorno works as a gateway port: about 90% of excursions go to Florence, Pisa and Lucca, and only 0.62% of disembarking tourists visit the town.^[3]

In Venice, for passengers starting or ending their cruise, city spending depends above all on overnight stays: according to studies cited in the ITF/OECD report, it rises from about €19 with no nights in the city to €109 with one night, €494 with two and €690 with three or more, while a transit passenger spends about €107.^[6]

How much really stays local

Not everything spent stays in the destination. In Vanuatu, according to estimates based on business interviews, 41% of every dollar spent flows abroad; on Mystery Island, where nearly all activities are assumed to be run by locals, the share drops to 30%.^[5] In the Caribbean, among transit passenger parties who answered the survey and bought a shore excursion, 74% bought it from the cruise line and 14% directly from onshore operators.^[4] And because these economies import heavily, estimated indirect effects stay smaller than direct ones in every destination.^[4]

A study on Papua New Guinea cited in the APEC report estimates that half of the spending went to the state through port fees and 30% to tour operators.^[7]