Maritime tourism and terrorism: customer perceptions of the potential terrorist threat to cruise shipping

Maritime terrorism is a neglected area of research in tourism, particularly the use of scenario planning to understand potential threats to the cruise industry. Since the events of 9/11, terrorism, and the threat of terrorism, has become a major concern within the tourism industry. This article analyses tourist perception of perceived terrorist threats given that many ships are American owned. Using the scenario analysis presented by Greenberg, Chalk, Willis, Khilko, and Ortiz, this study suggests that an attack on a cruise ship is a distinct possibility. Indeed, 44% of respondents questioned perceived the possibility of a terrorist attack on a cruise ship to be likely despite the fact that safety and security is seen by the industry as a ‘hallmark’ of cruising. Differences in attitude among potential passengers revealed a high level of confidence in the cruise ship companies. This finding is particularly marked among more experienced cruise ship passengers. However, this did not necessarily preclude the possibility of security measures being improved. All passengers appeared generally resigned to the fact that risk is associated with travel in the twenty-first century and welcomed any efforts by cruise shipping companies to improve safety and security.     

An Exploratory Study of the Propensity for South Koreans to take Cruises: Investigating Koreans' Perceptions of Cruise Ship Travel

The purpose of the present study was to examine Koreans' perceptions of cruise ship travel to ascertain the potential for future development of that tourism segment. An understanding of Koreans' perceptions is essential for determining the potential of the Korean cruise market. Using survey data, the study investigated Koreans' knowledge level, willingness and desired travel patterns regarding cruise ship travel. Findings from the study can assist practitioners to enhance their comprehension of Koreans' perceptions and behaviors concerning cruise ship travel. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cruise ship passenger spending patterns in Pacific island ports

The cruise business has recorded a solid growth rate in the past 20 years, with this development being driven by corporate mergers and takeovers, the launching of mega‐ships, the opening up of new destinations and the growing propensity of people who choose to cruise. This study measures the expenditure patterns of cruise ship passengers in seven Pacific island ports of call. Some of these ports receive up to 32 cruise ship visits per year and their economies are partly reliant on them. It is important, therefore, for service suppliers, retailers and handicraft producers to know what appeals to cruise passengers so that they can continue to produce the products in demand profitably. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Tourism managers' view of the economic impact of cruise traffic: the case of southern Spain

This article focuses on analysing the perception that the tourism sector itself has of its impact in cities at which cruises call. We use a sample of 371 managers of tourism establishments in the hinterlands of two Spanish cruise ports. The conclusions confirm the good public image that cruise traffic has traditionally enjoyed. However, the vision that the managers have is not uniform but depends on the characteristics of the tourist establishment and its own experience. Managers also advocate the direct intervention of the public administrations, even with economic aid, to favour the implementation of cruise tourism in their cities.     

Should Cruise Ports Market Ecotourism? A Comparative Analysis of Passenger Spending Expectations within the Panama Canal Watershed

This study examined the expected spending patterns of cruise ship passengers as they debarked ships at ports within the Panama Canal Watershed. Results suggest that targeting marketing efforts toward ecotourism opportunities may increase long‐term ecological and economic benefits to port communities and local businesses. Most respondents were interested in ecotourism‐related activities in the Panama Canal Zone and nearby coastal areas. Furthermore, the ecotourism‐related market segments expected to spend significantly more money in port than conventional tourists. The growing ecotourism market represents an important opportunity for the cruise industry to partner with local ecotourism operators, enhancing profitability while simultaneously supporting sustainable development. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cruise homeport location selection evaluation based on grey-cloud clustering model

Cruise industry presents an active and rapid development in recent years. Due to the rich tourism resource and potential tourism market, China has become the core component of the Asian market. Identifying factors that affect cruise homeport selection systematically and designing scientific evaluation system are the keys to selecting the optimal cruise homeport location. We analysed the influence factors motivating the cruise liner companies to select a specific port as the cruise homeport and designed an index system includes both quantitative indices and qualitative indices following the basic principles of index selection. In order to resolve the problem of incomplete information and randomness of the decision-making process, the grey-cloud clustering model was used for evaluation of cruise homeport selection. Further, we conducted a case study to evaluate whether or not these nine cruise ports, such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Sanya, are eligible to be homeports in China. Finally, several suggestions to improve the chance of being selected as a cruise homeport were recommended from viewpoints of port facilities, services and policy conditions. The results show that the model can reasonably and effectively help decision-makers to facilitate the homeport selection in real operations.     

Stakeholders,the natural environment and the future of Caribbean cruise tourism

Given the sheer complexity of effectively managing the web of potential stakeholders in any tourism development it is argued that for the future of Caribbean cruise tourism, the task is compounded by several key issues that warrant discussion. These include the economic dependency of the Caribbean region on tourism, the inequity of power relations between the various stakeholder groups and the lack of proven collaboration within this fragmented region of culturally diverse islands. This paper addresses these issues, discussing the importance of collaboration and planning for development, highlighting the disparate needs of the different stakeholders involved and drawing attention to the continuing paradox between maximising the opportunities presented by Caribbean cruise tourism whilst effectively managing its sustained development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.     

A Comparison of Residents' Perceptions in Two Cruise Ports in the Mediterranean Sea

This paper examines residents' perceptions of a wide set of externalities exerted by the development of cruise tourism. The research involved data collection in two ports located in the two largest Mediterranean islands, Sicily and Sardinia, during the summer peak of the cruise season 2011. These two cruise destinations are especially interesting as they are characterized by a distinct life cycle. The empirical findings show that the two groups of residents have statistically equal perceptions on cruise activity in their destination. A correspondence analysis shows that residents have an overall positive attitude on the development of cruise tourism with respect to social, cultural and economic impacts. Nevertheless, they also feel that cruise activity has a negative impact, especially on the environment. Heterogeneity in occupation is explicitly taken into account. These findings provide directions for local policy‐makers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Short-circuiting cruise tourism practices along the Russian Barents Sea coast? The case of Arkhangelsk

The growth and popularity of polar cruise tourism in the Arctic region have raised expectations about the opportunities in this part of the world. However, the existing academic literature has never ventured further than to recall these expectations and opportunities, which means that there is hardly any insight into what is actually happening in Russian Arctic cruise tourism. This paper aims to provide a practice-based perspective with a special focus on performed and integrated practices in the production of cruise tourism along the Russian Barents Sea coast. Semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the production of cruise tourism serve as the main source of information along with observations made during fieldwork in the Arkhangelsk region. Cruise tourism practices are facing a number of challenges in their reproduction and lack both consistency and regularity. The practice-based perspective helps to reveal how groups of actors collectively produce activities and itineraries for cruise tourists despite the structural constraints. Moreover, the paper shows how local private entrepreneurs are actively trying to configure and connect the constituting cruise tourism practices.     

An Exploratory Use of Web Content Analysis to Understand Cruise Tourism Services

Research within the cruise industry now has the ability to utilize Web‐based content analysis. This paper provides an example of a methodology that explores patterns of co‐creation of value on board cruise ships using holiday reviews retrieved through Web content mining from CruiseCritic.com . The aim is to add to the field of co‐creation and cruise tourism by providing an approach to exploratory Web‐based data collection. With the use of a data‐driven approach to knowledge discovery, this paper provides a means to achieve a deeper understanding of guest‐to‐guest and guest‐to‐staff interactions on board cruise ships. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards an understanding of a child’s cruise experience

The current studies on cruise tourism lack an exploration of children’s cruise experience. The aim of this article is to obtain a deeper understanding of children’s cruise experience in the following phases: the pre-cruise decision and planning phase; the on-board engagement phase; and the reinterpretation and evaluation phase. Following an inductive qualitative approach, three sets of interviews (one for each phase) were conducted with 12 children (aged 4–14 years). The findings revealed that children play a very important role in choosing the cruise company and that while on board children want to have a certain level of autonomy so that they can co-create their own memorable cruise experience. This study contributes to the overall theory of children’s tourism experience. The managerial implications for cruise companies are outlined.     

Island cruise tourism development: a resident's perspective in the context of Italy

Most studies that examine tourism impacts and community attitudes have been carried out from the perspective of the tourism sector as a whole, with very few papers focusing on specific types of tourism and/or analysing tourists' preferences for specific types of tourism segment. This paper discusses some pertinent issues in relation to cruise tourism development and community attitudes in a port of call cruise destination located in the island of Sicily (Southern Italy). Specifically, this study was carried out using a quota random sample of 1500 responses, which is representative of the population of Messina at 1% level. Findings show that residents express an overall positive attitude towards cruise tourism development even if it is not the most preferred when compared to other types of tourism (cultural tourism, sport tourism, and sun and sea tourism). Further, they highlight that significant differences based on socio-economic and demographic characteristics (age, gender, reliance on cruise-related employment, level of education, geographical proximity to tourist areas and port, length of residency and frequency of interaction with tourists) exist in residents' perceptions and attitudes towards cruise tourism development. Implications for policy-makers are discussed and suggestions for further research are given.     

The structure of customer satisfaction with cruise-line services: an empirical investigation based on online word of mouth

Given the importance of the cruise segment in the tourism industry and the limited number of prior studies in the area, this study empirically explores the structure of customer satisfaction with cruise-line services by evaluating the attributes of cruises that are significant to passengers. Using 44,993 voluntarily provided customer reviews published on a cruise guide website, a stepwise regression analysis is conducted to examine the effects of the attribute performance of cruises on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The findings empirically confirm the validity of the two-factor theory of customer satisfaction in the cruise tourism context. The asymmetric relationship of some attributes makes it possible to identify dissatisfiers, satisfiers, and hybrid factors for the cruise industry overall and cruises on ships of different tonnage. The results can help managers in the cruise industry understand what aspects of cruises should be given more attention to improve their competitive edge. This study is one of the first to look separately at the determinants of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the emerging cruise industry and proves that the two-factor theory is applicable in a new environment.     

Analyzing cruise ship itineraries patterns and vessels diversity in ports of the European maritime region: A hierarchical clustering approach

In this paper, European maritime cruise ship traffic of 1031 ports visited by 209 cruises is evaluated with different mathematical tools. Through an innovative ecological analogy, the diversity of ships in every port has been calculated using Simpson, Shannon, Margalef, and Berger-Parker diversity indexes and Automatic Identification System data from the cruise fleet in year 2015. By combining the results of Visiting Vessels Diversity with an Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering analysis, five different homogeneous cruise regions were identified that match with those normally established by cruise ship associations. Classification trees techniques also demonstrated that cruise ships' diversity in a port could significantly predict these cruise regions with high levels of confidence. All of this information together can serve as an input to develop and improve economic and environmental strategies of cruise ports and their cities. The primary goal of this paper is to obtain a picture of the behaviour of cruise traffic in the European maritime region, grouping ports in clusters based on the absence or presence of cruise ship on those ports and determining the diversity of vessels in each port.     

Does tourism cause growth? Evidence from Turkey

This paper examines the impact of detailed tourism expenditure on the long-run economic growth by employing Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach and causality test for data set of 2003:1 to 2012:4 in Turkey. The detailed tourism expenditure data are firstly employed for the causality of tourism expenditure on economic growth. The results of the bounds test show that there is a stable long-run relationship between accommodation expenses, transport expenditure, expenditure of sporting activities, sightseeing tour expenditure, clothing–footwear expenditure, gift expenditure and economic growth. The results of the causality test, on the other hand, show that there is a bidirectional causality between accommodation expenses, expenditure of sporting activities, gift expenditure and economic growth and a causal flow from transport expenditure to economic growth which is verified growth-led tourism hypothesis. Results reveal that sightseeing tour expenditure and expenditure of sporting activities are more successful on explaining the long-run growth in Turkey in terms of ARDL coefficients size. This result implies a policy that Turkey needs to invest tourism to gain more especially by focusing accommodation, sightseeing tours, sporting activities and transport infrastructure.     

Cruise travel motivations and repeat cruising behaviour: impact of relationship investment

Passenger retention is undoubtedly one of the major challenges for cruise lines. Given that little is known about passengers’ post-purchase behaviour in the luxury cruise sector, this study addressed this omission by empirically verifying the imperative role of motivations, values, image, desire, and relationship investment in generating repeat cruising intentions. The proposed conceptual framework comprising these triggers was in general supported. In addition, its prediction ability for repurchase decision was sufficient. Specifically, our empirical findings demonstrated the adequacy of the higher order structure of cruise travel motivations that considerably increase hedonic and utilitarian values. Our results further identified the comparative importance of overall company image in determining intention. The mediating role of the study variables was also found. Lastly, the results of the metric-invariance model assessment revealed that relationship investment significantly moderated the value–image–desire linkages. Implications for tourism academics and cruise practitioners and future research directions are discussed.     

Development of a cruise motivation scale for emerging markets in Asia

Cruise travel has attracted the attention of researchers because of its rapid development. However, the literature lacks a reliable and valid measurement tool for constructing cruise motivation. The only available scale developed in the North American context, where the cruise industry is considerably mature, may be inapplicable to emerging markets due to cultural and experiential differences. To address this research gap, a measurement scale for cruise motivation in emerging markets, with Mainland China and Hong Kong as samples, was developed by following rigorous procedures that used both qualitative and quantitative methods. This study offers both academic and operational implications.     

A general framework for collecting and analysing the tracking data of cruise passengers at the destination

Cruise passengers’ behaviour at the destination is a rather poorly investigated phenomenon. The single exit/entry point and the relatively brief visiting time, which characterize cruise passengers’ experience at their destinations, make the use of GPS technology particularly suitable for the analysis of such a relevant phenomenon. The aim of this research is to propose a general framework for collecting and analysing GPS tracking data relating to cruise passengers’ behaviour at their destination. The main prerequisites and research stages for the implementation of surveys on cruise passengers will be described and a set of tools and measures for the analysis of GPS tracking data will be proposed, together with their potential applications. As examples of case studies, two surveys performed in the ports of Palermo and Dubrovnik will be described and the main results of the collated information will be presented. Improving our understanding of the behaviour of cruise passengers at their destination is particularly relevant for the management of tourism destinations, given the challenges that this growing phenomenon is posing for many port destinations in the Mediterranean.     

Cruise visitors' experience in a Mediterranean port of call

This study aims to provide a better understanding on cruise travel experience by studying cruise ship passengers motivation, satisfaction and likelihood of return to the port of Heraklion (Crete, Greece). From the findings, it is evident that ‘exploration’ and ‘escape’ were among the main motivations of visitors, and ‘product and services’ as well as ‘tour pace’ were significant dimensions in shaping overall satisfaction levels. Nevertheless, onshore activities were restricted to sightseeing and shopping, because of the limited available time. Based on these findings, relevant proposals are made in order to provide positive port experiences. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Economic Impacts of Inbound Tourism under Different Assumptions Regarding the Macroeconomy

On what is taken to be the 'Standard View', increased tourism expenditure from inbound markets has direct, indirect and induced effects on a host destination, leading to increased production, income and employment. Strong links between tourism and other sectors of business reduce import leakages from tourism expenditure thereby enhancing the multiplier effects of the injected expenditure on domestic output, value added and employment. The usual technique for analysing these effects is input-output analysis. This paper argues that economy-wide effects must be taken into account in determining the impacts of increased tourism expenditure on a destination, and that the 'Standard View' is superficial and very often misleading. An expanding tourism industry tends to 'crowd out' other sectors of economic activity, reducing the demand for traditional exports and import competing industries. The extent of these 'crowding out' effects depends, in turn, on the workings of labour markets, changes in prices and the real exchange rate, and the macroeconomic policy context. It is argued that these mechanisms can only properly be taken into account using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models rather than input-output modelling. The paper then looks at applications of CGE modelling to tourism growth in both nations and regions, classifying the various studies according to assumptions made about labour markets and government policies. The discussion has relevance for estimating the economic contribution of tourism in all destinations. The paper concludes with some observations regarding the use of CGE modelling in tourism contexts internationally and issues for further research.