More Itinerary changes.

So we are in the middle of a Launch after Launch boom and what seems to be the pattern is the size of the ships, they are all getting bigger and bigger. The industry is very excited by this as more and more holiday makers turn to cruising, but, these huge ships are having an impact on the ports of call. A few ports of call have already voiced their concerns at such large vessels with huge capacities descending on their towns and cities to see the sights. Thousands of passengers disembark these ships in the ports every day and a lot of these ports of call feel that although a huge influx of tourists visiting, a large proportion of this offers so little in terms of spending in the local economy. Many will have booked excursions through the cruise line whilst others will just disembark and have a look around rather than spending money,

Amsterdam has introduced a Cruise Tourist Tax on all cruise passengers visiting the popular Dutch city. This will cost passengers 8 Euros per person for 24 hours, so those with overnight stays face a charge of 16 Euros! Cruise guests that start or end their itinerary in Amsterdam will not be charged the tax, much to the relief of all the river cruise passengers starting in Amsterdam.

Last year cruise passengers represented just 1% of tourists in Amsterdam with 60million euros being received from The Port of Amsterdam. It seems a little unfair and as a result of this Cruiselines have reacted.

MSC and Cruise and Maritime have already changed or cancelled planned stops on all of their 2019/2020 itineraries due to the tax, which they would have no choice but to pass the charge on to their customers. MSC gave the customers the opportunity to cancel free of charge as they replaced Amsterdam with Rotterdam.

Cruise and Maritime have amended over 35 itineraries that had planned stops in Amsterdam and replaced most with stops in Rotterdam, which has affected over 50,000 guests.

I went on a cruise that stopped in Rotterdam for the day, as scheduled, unfortunately ,Rotterdam has very little in the way of entertaining todays cruise passengers.