The winning cruiselines might love it and it might make a story for the papers but at least one person is totally unimpressed with the latest results from Cruise.co.uk's regular survey of the "best" cruise lines and their ships, food, entertainment and service.
"...it must be said that some of its results are highly dubious. For example, for "best cruise line" the ranking was Cunard, Thomson, Ocean Village and Princess. No mention at all of Crystal, Regent, Seabourn or Silversea. Since when did Ocean Village become the third best cruise line in the world (or even in the UK)?"
Mark Tre of Cybercruises, who wrote this, points out, as I have in the past, that the scoring is highly flawed, biased in favour of the lines that atttract the most reviews.
Take that best cruise line category, where Cunard came top, Thomson second and Ocean Village and Princess were equal third.
"How anyone might accept that Thomson could ever be the second best cruise line and that Ocean Village ties with Princess for third is ludicrous .... surely "best" is not the way to decribe these results. "Most popular" would be more like it."
I have to say I totally agree. Or maybe be even more specific - "most popular among the Brits".
The piece continues, dissecting the best food, best service and best accommodation categories, and finally concluding that the whole thing is a publicity exercise for Cruise.co.uk.
Surprise surprise.
But it succeeded. Even the Telegraph and Travel Weekly (not written by me!) ran with the story. And let's face it, so did Mark Tre, whoever he might be!
Jane Archer
Comments (2)
Yes, indeed. In fact, I wrote in the comments section of the Daily Telegraph article about the survey results the following:
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There are other sceptical comments published by the Telegraph on this article.
What we don't know from these "results" is what questions were asked, and who were asked to answer them? How was the target audience selected? In any event, I think we can disregard these results just like the previous such survey. The trouble is that people who don't have more than a passing knowledge of the cruise industry might actually believe them.
Posted by Philip Hurst | September 29, 2009 1:29 PM
Posted on September 29, 2009 13:29
Hi Philip. My understanding is that the survey is based purely on the stars allocated by people who write reviews on the site, who may or may not have booked their cruise with Cruise.co.uk. I believe individual ships must have received at least 50 reviews before they can be included in the survey. It does make it all very hit and miss, and a bit misleading, as you say, but I would hope anyone, including new-to-cuise folk, would check out other sources of info as well - or maybe even talk to a cruise specialist travel agent - before booking.
Posted by Jane Archer | September 29, 2009 5:52 PM
Posted on September 29, 2009 17:52