Shore Excursions Group presents a substitute for cruise line excursions in ports of name worldwide, CEO Paul Kiritsy advised Cruise Trade Information.
The corporate goals to offer higher-quality, lower-priced excursions in smaller teams by way of partnerships with native suppliers, he added.
“We’ve a portfolio of greater than 4,000 excursions in over 300 ports. We work intently with our tour operators to make sure 99 p.c protection of all the key cruise line itineraries,” Kiritsy defined.
To this point, Shore Excursions Group has delivered greater than 4.5 million excursions since its founding in 2008.
“We’re a substitute for cruise line excursions. We work with journey companies, partnering with 1000’s of journey advisors, together with the world’s largest cruise-selling journey firms,” he mentioned.
These companions refer their purchasers to Shore Excursions Group after they e book their cruises.
The excursions are fastidiously designed to keep away from delays and issues with port instances of the itineraries, he defined.
“We’ve over a century of mixed cruise trade expertise from our founders, our government staff, all through our administration and our tour group. This offers what we consider is a novel perspective on tips on how to set up and run our enterprise,” Kiritsy added.
The corporate has developed expertise by way of its web site to make sure that clients solely see excursions that match their cruise itineraries.
“It’s proprietary expertise that analyzes port arrival and departure instances from the cruise line’s schedule to solely supply excursions that guarantee purchasers can return to the ship with loads of time.”
Kiritsy is seeing extra folks touring and in search of experiences.
“It’s unbelievable to suppose that 4 years in the past we confronted an entire shutdown. No trade was extra impacted than ours by the pandemic,” he mentioned, noting that gross sales numbers are up.
“As locations open up and other people start to journey once more, there appears to be this actual urge for food to see the world and expertise it.”
Passengers are additionally reserving excursions sooner than earlier than, with gross sales for 2025 wanting actually sturdy, Kiritsy added.
He additionally mentioned that friends appear to be specializing in spending extra on experiences and journey fairly than materials gadgets.
“Individuals are actually enthusiastic about journey, and the reserving curve has continued to shift outward annually because the pandemic,” he added.
All high cruise locations are seeing sturdy gross sales, together with Alaska, Europe, and the Caribbean, Kiritsy famous.
Cozumel in Mexico and Roatán in Honduras, in addition to Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan in Alaska are the top-selling locations for the corporate.
In Europe, Rome, Athens and Barcelona are additionally amongst Shore Tour Group’s high locations to date in 2024, Kiritsy mentioned.
Along with small-group excursions, the corporate additionally presents personal excursions, that are presently trending upward.
“Consistent with this return to journey and pleasure for experiences, clients and cruisers are on the lookout for enhanced experiences. They’re keen to pay extra for a personal tour that features its personal driver and information,” he defined.
The typical measurement of excursions provided by Shore Excursions Group is 12 friends.