Economic significance of cruise tourism

doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(97)00098-4

Annals of Tourism Research

Volume 25, Issue 2, April 1998, Pages 393-415

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(97)00098-4 Get rights and content

Abstract

Cruise business is a growing segment of the international tourism market. While there have been studies of its economic impacts on a national level, the issues of the costs and benefits and their distribution have received scant attention. This paper develops a framework for assessing the economic impacts of cruise tourism for a nation and its subregions. It further explores how the framework can be used to estimate the relevant benefits and costs. A case study of cruise tourism in Australia shows how the framework can be implemented and discusses some policy implications. This analysis can facilitate future research, empirical studies, and strategy development relevant to cruise tourism.

Résumé

L'importance économique des croisières. Les croisières sont un segment croissant du marché du tourisme international. Bien qu'il existe quelques études des impacts économiques des croisières au niveau national, on a fait très peu attention à la distribution des coûts et bénéfices. Cet article construit un cadre théorique pour évaluer les impacts économiques des croisières pour une nation et pour ses sous-régions. On montre en plus comment ce cadre peut être utilisé pour évaluer les coûts et les bénéfices pertinents. Une étude de cas des croisières en Australie démontre l'application du cadre et discute quelques implications pour la politique. Cette analyse pourra faciliter la recherche, les études empiriques et le développement stratégique futurs pour le tourisme de croisières.

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The lowest values of average per-capita expenditure, of approximately 25–35€, have been reported for various Mediterranean (Casado-Díaz et al., 2021; Domènech & Gutiérrez, 2020; Domènech, Gutiérrez, & Anton Clavé, 2020), Scandinavian (Larsen & Wolff, 2016), and Latin American destinations (Brida et al., 2012; Brida, Lanzilotta, Moreno, & Santiñaque, 2018; Seidl, Guiliano, & Pratt, 2007). Other studies (Pino & Tovar, 2019) have reported slightly higher values (45 to 75€), whereas many visitors to Caribbean, North American and Australian ports can spend up to €200/visit (Dwyer & Forsyth, 1998). The following factors were found to be significant regarding socio-demographic determinants of passenger expenditure: income (Brida et al., 2012; Brida & Risso, 2010; Parola, Satta, Penco, & Persico, 2014), age (Brida et al., 2012, 2018; Brida, Bukstein, & Tealde, 2015; Casado-Díaz et al., 2021; Domènech, Gutiérrez, & Anton Clavé, 2020; Henthorpe, 2000; Parola et al., 2014; Papadopoulou et al., 2017; Gargano and Grasso, 2016), passenger's educational level (Parola et al., 2014), and nationality (Brida et al., 2012; Marksel et al., 2017; Parola et al., 2014).
This paper analyzes the relationships between the spatial behaviour and destination expenditures of cruise tourists by integrating customer surveys and GPS tracking technology. Based on data collated in 2018 and 2019 in Copenhagen, cruise passenger expenditure was modelled via logistic regression, using socio-demographic characteristics and mobility-related variables. In order to map the spatial behaviour and the key characteristics of the itinerary followed, tracking data were synthesized into meaningful mobility variables. An analysis of stops was performed to identify locations with the potential highest expenditure density. The results indicated that spatial movement and, in particular, stop activities are relevant in explaining expenditure behaviour. The implications of the proposed methodology are discussed with regards to further research, and destination management.
Tourist experience at port and town: assessing cruiser satisfaction during self-organized onshore excursions at Lautoka Port, Fiji, in 2018–2019
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Fiji is regarded as a South Pacific paradise; it attracts many tourists and cruisers desirous of a one-of-a-kind, memorable and long-lasting experience. The archipelago has witnessed an unprecedented rate of development in the cruise industry in the last decade, with an increase in the number of cruise liners as well as cruisers, especially those who take a halt for less than a half-day at a port and thus gain experience as tourists in Fiji. Cruisers opt for either pre-booked tours (booking made before disembarking) or self-organized excursions. Their experience during self-organized excursions at Fiji ports has not been studied so far. This study attempts to fill in this research gap. The study carries out a statistical analysis of the empirical data on cruisers' feedback on onshore experiences. This data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 369 cruisers who enjoyed self-organized excursions at Lautoka port anytime between December 2018 and April 2019. The study uses a Likert-type scale to measure cruiser's satisfaction; it carries out principal component analysis with Varimax Kaiser normalization and SPSS (demo); it further uses a factor analysis model to make observations. The results of this study indicate that cruiser satisfaction and behaviour are positively or adversely affected by many socio-cultural and economic factors. The study puts forward some constructive suggestions to achieve high satisfaction among cruisers.
Performance evaluation of Asian major cruise terminals
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Compared to cargo terminals, performance evaluation of cruise terminals sits in a backseat in the current port performance studies, particularly in the Northeast Asia. This paper aims to evaluate the performance of major cruise terminals in Asia, taking into account the important dimensions and criteria influencing cruise terminal development, and using primary data by experts' responses to a questionnaire survey. Complementary data are also acquired by field trips and interviews to find the hidden information that is not revealed from the set questions in the questionnaire survey. To tackle the multiplicity and uncertainty in the collected data, the hybrid of Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and Consistent Fuzzy Preference Relation (CFPR) is employed to evaluate cruise terminal performance and highlight visual illustration of the test results. The findings provide useful insights for guiding cruise lines’ terminal selection and for aiding cruise terminals to benchmark their performance to effectively improve their service and maximize their overall performance.
Estimating cruise passenger's expenditure: A censored system approach
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Cruise ship passenger spending patterns are analyzed for the archipelago of the Canary Islands, as such patterns represent a key element in the evaluation of the economic impact of cruise ships on residents and local stakeholders. Over six cruise seasons, data regarding cruise passenger expenditures were collected via survey responses at each stopover. Since the five categories of expenditure analyzed are censored and possibly correlated, we have estimated a multivariate tobit system. This approach offers more efficient estimates of the determinants of cruise passengers' onshore spending, which can be useful in designing economic policies. Our results show that gender, age and socioeconomic status affect cruise passenger spending patterns significantly and, more importantly, in different ways depending on the expenditure category. Therefore, it seems that more personalized marketing strategies (i.e., gender/age/nationality-oriented) classified by expenditure category should be more efficient and, therefore, implemented to achieve greater local economic impact.
Expanding our understanding of cruise visitors' expenditure at destinations: The role of spatial patterns, onshore visit choice and cruise category
2021, Tourism Management
Cruise tourism is an important and growing source of visitors to destinations. To expand our knowledge of this phenomenon, this study incorporates three new drivers into the analysis of the expenditure patterns of cruise passengers at destinations, namely, spatial intra-destination behavior (single node, multiple node, or hinterland), onshore visit choice (independent or guided), and cruise category (standard, premium, luxury, or exclusive). The study uses quantile regression to unearth the intricacies of the proposed relationships and a dataset that combines GPS tracking technologies and traditional surveys. Results suggest that the mobility pattern, onshore visit choice, and time spent at a destination of cruise visitors have significant effects on their expenditures. However, these effects vary along with the level of expenditure, whereas cruise category does not exert a clear effect on expenditure. The implications for destination management organizations are also discussed.
Forecasting Chinese cruise tourism demand with big data: An optimized machine learning approach
2021, Tourism Management
Citation Excerpt :
The contents of the retrieved webpages related to the keywords assist potential tourists when deciding travel plans. Cruise tourism potentially has a significant impact on local economies (Chen et al., 2019; Dwyer & Forsyth, 1998) which may be small but beautiful inlets or harbors around the world, somewhat cut off from standard economic development. This phenomenon also has a knock-on effect on economic development because this influences the cruise tourism industry (Gibson & Parkman, 2019; Sun, Feng; Gauri, 2014).
After more than ten years of exponential development, the growth rate of cruise tourist in China is slowing down. There is increasingly financial risk of investing in homeports, cruise ships and promotional activities. Therefore, forecasting Chinese cruise tourism demand is a prerequisite for investment decision-making and planning. In order to enhance forecasting performance, a least squares support vector regression model with gravitational search algorithm (LSSVR-GSA) is proposed for forecasting cruise tourism demand with big data, which are search query data (SQD) from Baidu and economic indexes. In the proposed model, hyper-parameters of the LSSVR model are optimized with GSA. By comparing these models with various settings, we find that LSSVR-GSA with selected mobile keywords and economic indexes can achieve the highest forecasting performance. The results indicate the proposed framework of the methodology is effective and big data can be helpful predictors for forecasting Chinese cruise tourism demand.

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¹: He has published widely in the area of economics of tourism and is presently undertaking research on sustainable tourism development.

²: He has extensive publications in the area of industry economics and airline policy and is currently undertaking research on tourism taxes and price competitiveness indexes for tourism.

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ArticleEconomic significance of cruise tourism

Abstract

Résumé

Annals of Tourism Research

Annals of Tourism Research

Annals of Tourism Research

Annals of Tourism Research

The Medium Term Significance of International Tourism to the Australian Economy

International Visitor Survey 1995

The Cruise Industry: An Overview

National Cruise Shipping Strategy

Foreign Ownership and Leakages from Tourist Expenditure: A Framework for Analysis

The Australian Journal of Hospitality Management

Economic Impacts of Cruise Tourism in Australia

Journal of Tourism Studies

Modelling Tourism Jobs: Measuring the Employment Impacts of Inbound Tourism

Commonwealth Department of Tourism, Occasional Paper No. 2

On Measuring the Social Opportunity Cost of Labour. Project Evaluation

Article
Economic significance of cruise tourism