Putting people off cruises

In January, in the aftermath of the Costa Concordia cruise tragedy, SodaHead.com – the web’s largest opinion-based community – ran a poll to determine if the general public was “less likely to take a cruise given the incident.”

At that time, according to the SodaHead poll, 27% of respondents said "YES, they are less likely to cruise."

After the recent fire on the Costa Allegra, SodaHead once again polled its members, and the results showed that a startling 47% of respondents were now less likely to cruise based on these incidents, a 20% jump in less than two months.

The age of the respondent played a factor in the results, as 53% of those over 65 are stating that they are now less likely to cruise, while 31% of those between 25 -34 are having second thoughts about getting on a ship.

Click here for the full poll results, with respondent demographics.

For more details about all cruise all over the world take a look at Prow's Edge Cruises Magazine

Costa Concordia Tragedy Impact on Cruise Bookings

Some 260 of over 1,000 people polled in the aftermath of the running aground of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Tuscany say they are “less likely to take a cruise given the incident”, according to the web’s largest opinion-based community, SodaHead.com.

The results, says SodaHead, demonstrate that the disaster may have a deep impact on the cruise industry. To put this in perspective, with an estimated 18.8 million people cruising in 2010, if 26% were going to change their cruise travel plans based on this disaster, that would mean the industry would see 4.9 million fewer cruisers.

Full results of the poll are available at SodaHead Costa Concordia poll

Of course, voting “less likely” doesn’t mean they won’t be on a cruise this year. A large number of them, come what may, will be will be packing their glad-rags for the usual reasons and head for the Caribbean, Alaska and elsewhere. But the repercussions for the cruise industry are ugly no matter how few decide against a cruise.

Additional findings of the survey show that the respondent’s age had an impact on their vote. While only 14% of respondents between the ages of 25-34 said the tragedy might impact their future cruise plans, a striking 34% of those over the age of 65 said that they are now less likely to cruise and many of the traditional cruisers are from this age group.

With cruise ships becoming ever bigger (some now carrying 6,000 passengers), the tragedy has focused attention on the International Maritime Organization’s new rules for passenger ship safety. A comprehensive package of amendments to the international regulations affecting new passenger ships came into force on 1 July 2010. Increased emphasis is now placed on reducing the chance of accidents occurring and on improved survivability, embracing the concept of the ship as “its own best lifeboat”, capable of returning to port in the event of a major mishap.

Costa Cruises Disaster with Costa Concordia

As our news item at the Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine News Pages points out, it has never been the role of Prow’s Edge Cruise Magazine to dwell on disasters at sea, no matter how large or tragic the event.

As ugly as the news item is, and despite the fact that we are all are aware that disasters can happen on cruises, no matter how wonderful and idyllic the cruise may seem to be, Prow's Edge has never dwelled on these events. Considering the huge number of cruises that are sailing all over the world every day without any bad outcomes, it seems unnecessary to dwell morbidly on such happenings.

This latest disaster with the Costa Concordia off the western coast of Italy late on Friday evening, January 13th is one of the more ugly cruise events to happen in a number of years.

Prow's Edge Cruise magazine has brought you the basic details at the Prow's Edge Cruise Magazine News Pages, but rather than dwelling on this in days to come, suggest that you follow your usual news services for more information.

Our sympathies go to all those involved in this horrendous event.