Examining strategies for maximizing and utilizing brand prestige in the luxury cruise industry

The purpose of this research was to examine the antecedents and consequences of brand prestige in the luxury cruise industry in order to provide luxury cruise managers with practical strategies for maximizing and utilizing brand prestige. Based on the existing theoretical background, it was hypothesized that eight types of cruise experience factors influence the formation of brand prestige: food quality, service quality, staff/crew attractiveness, entertainment, ship facilities, ports of call, programs/places for children, and cabin quality. In addition, it was proposed that brand prestige can result in three managerial outcomes: well-being perception, customer brand identification, and brand loyalty. A conceptual model was developed and tested using the empirical data collected from 330 U.S. luxury cruise passengers. The results showed that all of the proposed hypotheses were statistically supported. The key theoretical/managerial implications that were derived from the analysis are presented and discussed in the last part of the article.     

Collective self-governance in a marine community: expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard

Collective self-governance is gaining attention in the literature for maintaining the quality of key attractions and promoting sustainable tourism. The long-term success of collective self-governance is dependent on both its internal organization and its embeddedness in external state and non-state regulations. This paper presents the marine community concept, consisting of a policy and a user community, as a framework for investigating the internal and external dynamics of collective self-governance and its ability to steer toward sustainable cruise tourism. As methodology, a case study design was chosen which was primarily studied by means of interviews with a spectrum of relevant actors concerning expedition cruise tourism at Svalbard. By applying the marine community to Svalbard expedition cruise tourism governance, we draw the following conclusions: (1) collective self-governance complements governmental regulation through access to knowledge, conflict resolution and rule-compliance based on disclosure, traceability and trust; (2) collective self-governance's increasing role in the policy community alienates the expedition crew from the user community; and (3) informational overflow by co-existence of collective self-governance and state-governance challenges sustainable cruise tourism. Collective self-governance would, therefore, benefit from reflection, especially regarding the role of the user community that functions as an intermediary between state and self-governance regulations.     

Risk Perception and Buying Behavior: An Examination of Some Relationships in the Context of Cruise Tourism in Jamaica

Cruise tourism continues to grow substantially, even as many other forms of travel stagnate. In this era of increasing worldwide violence against tourists, safety, security, and risk abatement are becoming principal components in travelers' decision-making processes. This work examines the issue of perceived risk and safety and what impact these perceptions have on shopping behavior. The research takes place in Jamaica, a country with a reputation for aggressive vendors. Findings indicate that those visitors who traveled with others spent more time shopping and purchased more. Additionally, it was found that first time visitors express higher levels of discomfort with their surroundings than did repeat visitors, thus inhibiting purchase behavior. Finally, it was found that levels of perceived risk and security did have an impact on a traveler's intention to return to Jamaica.     

中国邮轮旅游产业:研究现状与展望

邮轮产业已经成为现代旅游业中发展最为迅猛的行业,近几年达到8％左右的增长速度,被视为“漂浮在黄金水道上的黄金产业”.然而,邮轮业并没有引起学术界的足够关注,研究成果还非常有限.近年来国际邮轮市场的倾斜,使得中国邮轮旅游业发展势头强劲,已成为中国经济增长的新方式和新领域.文章基于国内现有的文献资料,对中国邮轮旅游产业的研究问题和研究成果进行了综述.首先介绍了世界邮轮业的概况和中国邮轮业的发展现状;其次从宏观审视和微观分析的角度讨论了中国学者对邮轮旅游业的研究成果;最后针对中国邮轮产业的问题,从产业集聚视角、利益相关者视角和消费者视角提出了未来值得研究的方向.     

我国邮轮旅游产业发展对策研究

我国正处在大力发展邮轮旅游产业的历史时期.文章通过分析世界邮轮旅游的现状,剖析我国邮轮旅游产业的特点及发展中存在的问题,旨在提出推动我国邮轮旅游发展的对策和建议.文章认为,邮轮旅游业的发展在宏观方面需要政府在制定政策体系、强化管理机制、培育引导市场主体、制定统一规划、引导游客等方面有所加强,才能够引导邮轮旅游业在发展能力和质量上上一个新的台阶.     

Marketing research and revenue optimization for the cruise industry: A concise review

This paper presents a concise review of the cruise industry mainly from marketing research and revenue optimization prospects. In recent years, the cruise industry has experienced an exciting growth. However, as one of the fastest growing and most profitable categories in the entire leisure market, this industry has hardly received any research attention. Given the limited academic articles, this paper presents a concise review about this budding research topic. First of all, a discussion about global cruise industry is conducted. Then, academic studies of the cruise industry on general marketing research, revenue management, itinerary design/optimization, optimal market segmentation, demand infiltration and economic issues are reviewed. Finally, some promising directions for future research are presented.     

World Leisure and Recreation Association International Position Statement on Leisure Education and Youth at Risk

Researchers have noted the utility of the Investment Model in explaining the formation of loyalty. This study extends the Investment Model in a leisure service context by including two additional constructs of quality and value. Quality and value are proposed as antecedents of satisfaction, with their effects on loyalty mediated by satisfaction. Results from an online panel survey of American cruise passengers support these hypotheses. The study provides a model of loyalty building that may shed new insight on loyalty research.     

A Logistic Regression Analysis of Discount Receiving Behavior in the Cruise Industry

Abstract

This exploratory study analyzed the relationships between a number of selected demographic and trip-related variables and cruise vacationers' discount receiving behavior. Cruise vacationers' discount usage was measured as a dichotomous variable (i.e., discount received-discount not received), and hence logistic regression was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. Among the ten independent variables, three variables, namely age, prior experience with cruise vacations, and gender were significant predictors of discount usage. Our study results indicate that younger female vacationers are more likely to use discounts compared to older male vacationers. Furthermore, experienced cruise vacationers seem more prone to taking advantage of discount prices than novice cruise vacationers. Findings of this study suggest that cruise marketers might want to focus on younger, experienced female cruise vacationers in their promotional efforts.     

Exploring cruise ship passenger spending patterns in two Uruguayan ports of call

The cruise industry has become a significant component of the Uruguayan tourism economy in the last few years. The present study aims to provide a better understanding of the cruise industry by considering the expenditure of cruise ship passengers disembarking at the ports of call of Montevideo and Punta del Este as a key variable in the economic analysis of the costs and benefits. We estimate two cross-sectional regression models for cruise passenger expenditures, and show that the size of the group the visitors travel with and visitor mobility within the country are the most important variables to explain individual expenditure behaviour. We also include some management recommendations that policy-makers could implement in order to improve the economic profits from cruise ship tourism.     

Antecedents of Green Loyalty in the Cruise Industry: Sustainable Development and Environmental Management

As there is a lack of understanding about cruise travelers' eco‐friendly behaviors and knowledge about eco‐friendly cruises, this study attempted to examine the role of green value, satisfaction, desire, and internal and external normative factors in building passengers' green loyalty for environmentally responsible cruises. A survey methodology and structural equation modeling were utilized to achieve the research purpose. Data quality assessment revealed that all measures for variables included an adequate level of reliability and validity. Results of the structural analysis indicated that our theoretical framework had a sufficient level of anticipation power for loyalty. The proposed associations among study variables were generally supported. The significant indirect influence of green values and social norms on loyalty was identified. Moreover, the magnitude of the total influence of social norms on loyalty was the greatest among the study constructs. Overall, our findings offer valuable and meaningful insights for cruise researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment