George Leppla wrote:
> "Jay Furr" wrote
>
>>Just as chains such as Westin and Sheraton have banned smoking *entirely*
>>from their properties and seen business go up, I'm not going to be a bit
>>surprised if one or more cruise lines acts likewise. If a cruise line
>>advertised completely smoking-free cruises we'd give them all our
>>business.
>
>
> Do you remember that Carnival once had a ship that was completely
> non-smoking? It was a great experiment but the ship was the lowest profit
> maker in their fleet, mainly because of lack of group business. Almost
> every group has at least a few smokers so those groups went on other ships.
>
> Not enough non-smokers booked individually to make up the loss... so after
> trying the non-smoking concept for about two years, the Paradise became a
> smoking ship.
My family got to cruise on the Paradise that last season. We thought it
was great and wanted to take it again to do the eastern Caribbean
cruise. While on the ship, we learned that the plan was to move it to
California and allow smoking. When the cruise director told us about it,
he seemed very sad.
He gave his explanation of why the "experiment" failed. He said the
problem wasn't that they couldn't book a full ship; in fact it filled up
easier than most of the fleet. The problem was "lack of addictive
behavior". While some non-smokers drink heavily, on the average they
drink less than smokers. While some non-smokers are avid gamblers, on
the average, they gamble less than smokers. Since the cruise lines have
to keep their prices low to be competitive, they make a good portion of
their profit from alcohol and the casino. That was why the Paradise was
making less money than the other ships.
Some of us pointed out that all those non-smokers will just spread out
among all the other ships and the bottom line for the whole big company
will not really change. He seemed to agree but of course, it didn't
matter if he agreed or not. It was a done deal that he had no say in.
If an entire cruise line went non-smoking, I would be happy to book a
cruise with them. However, I'm nearly a non-drinker and never cared much
for gambling either. I guess I would be contributing to their failure. :-(
I guess I would be willing to pay a little more for a smoke free ship. I
doubt enough others would.
Steve |