The campaign targets local, tri-state and regional passengers with the message to 'Choose cruise.'
New York offers passengers approximately 200 cruise departures a year on a dozen lines to such destinations as the Caribbean, Bermuda, Florida and the Bahamas, Canada/New England and Europe.
Components of the year-long campaign were first deployed in late November and will continue to unfold throughout the tri-state area through the first week in January, and run through the first quarter, cruising's wave season.
Advertising is popping up in shopping malls, bus shelters, newsstands, trains, ferries, industry publications and social media.
The malls include Fair Oaks in Washington, DC, and Fairfax, Virginia, Westfarms in Hartford, Connecticut, Stamford Town Center and The Mall at Short Hills.
In Boston, ads will appear in bus shelters and street furniture across the city, starting in January.
In New York itself, bus shelters and newsstands located across the five boroughs are targeted. On PATH trains, there will be posters in stations and railcars, system-wide. Posters also will appear at stations throughout the Metro North system, and a mailer will go out to 32,000 passengers who receive their monthly passes by mail.
Posters are planned on the Staten Island Ferry and in the Whitehall and St. George terminals.
The social media campaign will revolve around Facebook (facebook.com/nycruise).
New York City is the fifth busiest cruise port in the country, and ships sail from the Manhattan and Brooklyn cruise terminals year-round. In 2015, passenger movements topped 1m, at 1,049,719.
New York is a homeport for Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival Cruise Line, Cunard Line, Princess Cruises, Disney Cruise Line (whose Disney Magic returns to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal next fall for trips to Canada and the Bahamas), AIDA Cruises, Holland America Line, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Silversea Cruises and Viking Ocean Cruises.
Cruising had a hefty $217m economic impact in 2015, a 10% increase from 2014. That included $154.5m in direct spending by passengers and crew.
Forty percent of passengers stay overnight in New York before or after their cruise. Thirty percent of cruisers are international.
NYCruise is part of the New York City Economic Development Corp.
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited. Add Seatrade Cruise News to your Google News feed.
