The chairman and CEO of Bay Ferries says advanced bookings on the Cat ferry are very encouraging.
The numbers are up five-fold compared to this time last year for the Yarmouth to Portland service.
Mark MacDonald says over the past couple of weeks bookings have continued to be very strong.
He says they’re tracking in a similar pattern to what Bay Ferries saw from a revenue standpoint back in the 2006, 2007, 2008 period.
“Over the past couple of weeks bookings have been very strong, looking to next year. We’re tracking, in a similar pattern, to what we would see from a revenue standpoint, what we would see back in the 2006, 2007, 2008 period when the ferry service was carrying in the range of 90,000 to 100,000 people a year. In our next breath we always say that, just like last year, we tell everyone to remain calm and let things develop. We also say this year…let’s not get too excited in advance. we take it as an early but good indicator.”
MacDonald says word of the Cat ferry service got around.
He says a comprehensive customer survey at the end of the season, done by a third party.
“We went out to about 10 thousand passengers and got about 3100 people who were prepared to take about 20 minutes and fill in a very detailed survey. Based on the results of that survey, the two numbers that really stood out in our collective heads was that 93 per cent of passengers said that the experience met or exceeded expectations and 96 per cent of passengers said they would recommend the service to a friend. Corporate Research Associates tell us that those are extremely high numbers for this type of survey, so we’re happy about that and we think it might be contributing to some of the strength in numbers that we’re seeing at the early stage this year.”
The Cat arrived Sunday in Yarmouth.
The season starts May 31 and goes until October 15.
