Cruise tourists’ perceptions of destination: Exploring push and pull motivational factors in the decision to take a cruise vacation

Abstract

Cruise tourism is an increasingly popular and profitable industry that has been experiencing growth rates since the 1980s that are greater than the travel industry as a whole. Despite this growth, research about cruise tourism remains relatively underrepresented in the academic literature, with limited research into the motivational factors that influence the decision to take a cruise vacation. This research explores the motivational factors that influence the decisions of tourists to take a cruise vacation by using the push-pull framework. Push factors are the internal psychological motives that drive the need or desire to travel (Crompton, 1979) while pull factors are the specific attributes of the cruise destination (onboard and onshore) that draw tourists towards a specific cruise line, ship, or destination.Research was conducted using a mixed-methods approach in a three-stage sequential design. In the first stage of research, one-on-one interviews (20 participants) were conducted to explore participants' personal constructs of destination image in the context of cruise vacations. RepertoryGrid Analysis and open-ended questions were used to identify the onboard and onshore attributes that travellers use to compare and differentiate between cruise vacations. The responses were presented from the cruise travellers' point of view, representing personally relevant criteria that are used in the decision-making process (Coshall, 2000;Hankinson, 2004;Young, 1995).These results were then used to create a new measurement scale for cruise destination attributes that accounts for the unique aspects of cruising and that allows researchers to separately measure the importance of both onboard and onshore attributes.In the second stage, online surveys (344 participants) were conducted to refine the list of attributes elicited from Stage 1 to a quantity that is suitable for inclusion in a quantitative survey instrument in Stage 3. The online survey also tests the ability of the instrument to determine the relative importance of onboard and onshore attributes in tourists' choice of a specific cruise.The refined cruise destination attribute scale in the Stage 3 online study (503 participants) permitted, for the first time, an effective measurement of the relative importance of onboard and onshore attributes in tourist choices of a specific cruises. The results revealed that, when deciding on a cruise vacation, the majority of travellers place greater importance on the onboard attributes than on the onshore attributes. This supports the recent development by the cruise industry of new ships that are self-contained destinations, and of marketing campaigns that position the cruise ship as the focal point of cruise vacations, with cruise destinations being of secondary importance (Weaver, 2005c;Weeden et al., 2011;Wood, 2000). Although onboard attributes were of greater importance overall to many participants, this was not true for all. Further analysis identified three distinct groups: firstly, the onboard preference gro...

A Qualitative Review of Cruise Service Quality: Case Studies from Asia

“…Whyte [13] explored the cruise attributes of onboard environment, onboard social interaction, and onboard recreation and analysed their relative importance. The onboard environment includes cleanliness, good appearance of ships and facilities, comfortable environment, safe environment, high-quality food and restaurants, relaxed and stress-reducing atmosphere, high-quality accommodation, private space, variety of food and restaurants, and uncrowded onboard environment.…”

“…Social interactions include opportunities to meet new people, socializing with other passengers, passenger groups with diverse demographic characteristics, and passenger-friendly attributes. Onboard recreation includes excellent swimming pools and hot tubs, health and wellness facilities and amenities, exciting atmosphere, and entertainment facilities and atmosphere [13].…”

“…Assurance 1 Customers can trust crew members. [8,13,30,41,43,49,52] 2 Announcements for safety and lifeboat drills: Customers feel safe in their transactions with crew members. 3 Crew members are polite.…”

“…Vega-Muñoz et al [12] analysed 320 papers in 142 journals between 1980 and 2018 and determined that the cruise industry is a subject of research worthy of various approaches. Cruise tourism research has been fragmented because of its multidisciplinary nature and its relatively young status [13]. Moreover, quantitative studies covering quality of service, service attributes, and perceived value [8,10,[14][15][16][17] have been conducted, and a qualitative approach to these variables has also been taken.…”

“…Cont. These cruise lines do not give customers individual attention [13,30,[41][42][43]49,52]. 2 Crew members of cruise lines do not give customers personal attention.…”