Segmenting Cruise Consumers by Motivation for an Emerging Market: A Case of China

Abstract

After around four decades of fast growth, the cruise industry has become the most profitable and dynamic segment in the entire global leisure and tourism sector. Behind this growth is a significant shift in the profile of cruise consumers/passengers/tourists, with growth rates twice as fast as those of other types of tourists. China has become a strategic emerging market for the global cruise industry, quickly developing their cruise reception business and holding about 10% of the market share of global cruisers. In this paper, we examine and categorize various travel motivations of Chinese cruise tourists by means of a questionnaire via factor analysis, mean analysis, and K-cluster analysis. The results of the study indicate that Chinese cruise tourists are primarily encouraged to participate in cruise tourism by the motivational dimensions of family leisure/relaxation, natural and cultural exploration, bond/communication, social respect, tourism shopping, and cruise-promotion information sources. The strongest motivations for Chinese cruise tourists were found to be family leisure/relaxation and natural/cultural exploration. We identify four types of cruisers using the K-means cluster method. We find that for all cruiser demographics, leisure/relaxation is the most important motivational factor. Based on these results, we propose some specific solutions for expanding the customer pool in the Chinese cruise market.

An Exploratory Study on the Motivations behind Visiting the Holocaust Museum of Porto

“…The instrument that assesses participants' motivations behind dark tourism in this study revealed a bifactorial structure (novelty and knowledge-seeking; and fun, family, escape, and relaxation), with the novelty and knowledge-seeking factor presenting a higher mean value and, therefore, is the main reason why people visit the HMP, in line with Isaac et al [13], Bigley et al [14] and Sharpley and Stone [17]. Although it was not expected that fun, family, escape, and relaxation became one factor, these aspects often appear to be associated with each other (significant correlations) even when they are listed as separate factors, as noted by Jiao et al [57].…”

Cruise vacation experiences for Chinese families with young children

“…Also, Hung (2018) found that for those who traveled with family, their satisfaction toward cruise usually depends on the experience of their travel companions such as their kids or parents. A recent study indicated that the strongest motivations for Chinese cruise tourists are family leisure/relaxation and natural/cultural exploration, and companies should more specifically market personalized family leisure travel products, such as products of parent–child bonding activities (Jiao et al , 2021). In addition, most of the studies investigating cruiser satisfaction have focused on the relationships between customers’ degree of satisfaction and their level of perceived value, customer loyalty or behavioral intention.…”

“…Lehto et al (2017) proposed a framework of Chinese family vacation benefits and activities which can be understood using a two-dimensional plane along two continuums: I-we and immersion-absorption. Previous studies on cruising also pointed out the unique culture of respecting for family (collectivistic) in understanding Chinese travelers' motivation and experience (Sun et al, 2014;Hung, 2018;Jiao et al, 2021). The nature of parent-child relationships in China is rather paradoxical due the traditional Chinese value system characterized by Confucianism and the "little emperor" syndrome of single-child families in contemporary China.…”

Social transformation in the cruise industry during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…The cruise industry is experiencing social transformation created by the effect of financial crises, economic, globalization, global environmental change and pandemic, and technological advancement (Yazir et al, 2020;Choe et al, 2021;Sheller, 2021). This reflects the industry is under "a process of change" (Kunjuraman et al, 2022, p. 3), especially changes in consumers' behaviors and mix generate the social transformation phenomenon in the industry (Jiao et al, 2021). Young people (Gen Z) are the most influenced by the changes since they are the leading players in social transformation.…”