bought more goods while in ports-of-call if the service in retail stores had been better, a cruise industry study says.

The study, produced by the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association, showed that 75 percent of the Caribbean visitors felt they received as good, if not better, service in retail stores in the US.

However, the study also showed that the cruisers who rated Caribbean service better than that in the US also spent more than the average amount of $448 in port.

The study recognised that cruise passenger spending in ports-of-call greatly contributed to the economies of Caribbean cruise destinations.

The association whose member lines include Celebrity Cruises, Majesty Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, which all send regular callers to the Island, has produced the 1995 Cruise Passenger Shopping Study. The FCCA's Executive Committee Chairman Richard E. Sasso said they were trying to help destinations "take advantage of these opportunities and maximise these significant benefits'' by seeing which areas are "excelling'' and working on areas that "can be improved''.

The FCCA's Executive Director Ms Michele Paige said the "tourism industry has come to rely on quality research information'' to help increase passenger spending.

She said this is done by knowing what cruisers spend money on and what would make them spend more.