Onboard revenue concerns surface at ferry seminar

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Experts have slammed the "gross ineptitude" with which the travel industry abandoned European duty-free sales, and have urged ferries to adopt a creative approach to retail

Ferry operators must adopt a new approach in order to maximise onboard revenues despite falling passenger numbers, experts warned the industry last week.

At a seminar organised by consultants ShipShape International in conjunction with the Greenwich Maritime Institute, several speakers criticised the lack of creativity and willingness to change evident in the European industry.

Michael Foley of consultants Foley Cooke argued that companies have done little to improve retailing since the loss of intra-EU duty-free, and suggested ferry companies look to other parts of the industry to see how firms had repositioned their retail offers. He urged operators to be creative and to act like retailers.

ShipShape International director Jim Evans argued that ferries should consider automating their cash and foreign exchange facilities, employing shoreside retail expertise, offering high-margin services for first-class passengers and additional services for people returning from holiday in order to increase onboard revenues.

Passenger Shipping Association director William Gibbons warned that low-cost airlines were moving into Europe and that Baltic ferry operators' complacency was "staggering". He asked whether the industry should adopt a low-cost model.

ShipShape CEO Bill Moses added: "The onboard offer, coupled with a captive audience, could make a dramatic difference to the way in which ferries are perceived. Some have found the secret, but most have not."