More than half the businesses in Dartmouth can't be bothered to join the battle to win back the money spinning cruise ship business for the town.

Instead they reckon that the cruise ship passengers are more interested on making excursion trips to other areas rather than staying in Dartmouth and spending their money, warned the town's Cruise Group chairman Tricia Daniels.

This year five cruise ships dropped anchor in the port – a huge drop of more than two thirds in the last six years.

For months now, the recently formed Dartmouth Cruise Group has been fighting to raise the town's profile with the cruise ship visitors.

Its members and supporters have met and greeted passengers on the embankment with advice and information, wheeling out the town mayor and the town crier for onboard visits and making follow up calls to cruise line operators to reinforce the town's welcome.

The group has been trying to get the town's businesses involved by encouraging them to put out welcome signs outside their shops for the individual cruise ships.

But group spokesman Tricia Daniels said: 'It is something that we are going to have to work on.

'Businesses seem to be very divided.

'There are those that can't be bothered because they believe that the cruise passengers probably don't spend money in the town and are only interested in excursions and getting back to the ship.'

She said the divide was something like 60 to 40 – with the majority falling in the 'can't be bothered' camp.

'Some of the businesses have been fantastic,' she added.

'We asked them if they could go on line and find a photo of the ship in Dartmouth and put it up in their window with a welcome to the cruise ship passengers.

'Research shows that for cruise passengers that feeling of being made welcome will make them want to walk into the shop.'

The last cruise ship of the season – the Azarama Journey with mainly US passengers on board ­– departed from the River Dart in August.

It was the last of five cruise ship visits to the port this year.

Tricia revealed that six or seven years ago the number of visits was as high as 17 – with some ships coming back to the port two or three times.

The town welcomed a total of 1,500 cruise ship passengers, plus crews, during the course of the summer.

She said there was no certainty as to why the cruise ships visits to Dartmouth had tailed off so dramatically, but she added: 'All I can think of is that other ports were putting some effort approaching the whole situation differently and competition has got fiercer.

'Everyone has woken up to the fact that we have to fight for the business.'

After realising that there was no Dartmouth welcome for cruise ship visitors, the group organised people to meet the passengers, answer their questions and give them information and advice about the town.

She said the town mayor had visited the ships and often the town crier had been on board to talk to the passengers

Tricia added: 'We are delighted that focus and hard work paid off.

'Not only have we started to make a name for ourselves as a friendly and welcoming port, but we have created a group, representing vital elements of the town that works well and is focused on the future.'

Tricia who is also the cruise marketing adviser to Dart Harbour, added: 'The mayor, the BID team and the tourist information centre managers have done an amazing job behind the scenes, assisted on arrival days by TIC representatives, the mayoress, the town crier with his wife and Dart Harbour staff.

'Special thanks must be given to those businesses in town who supported us during each ship arrival, with their individual welcomes for passengers. We are deeply grateful for their positivity, which certainly helped us build our reputation amongst the guests.'

But she warned the battle was going to be a long haul and, as cruise lines sort out their itinerary a year in advance, the town is unlikely to see any improvements next year.

'We have been contacting the cruise lines and we are negotiating with a couple of companies to bring their ships to us in 2016,' she added.

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