Abstract

While it is quite straightforward to determine the factors that satisfy cruise passengers, such as dining, entertainment, etc., it is a challenge to determine their relative importance. A cruise firm with limited resources needs to concentrate its resources chiefly on those aspects of the cruise travel experience that its customers value more. Unfortunately the findings in the academic literature about the relative importance of the determinants of cruise passengers’ satisfaction provide little guidance as they rarely converge across studies. We offer an explanation for this lack of convergence among the different studies about the relative importance of determinants. We believe that cruise customers who go to different locations form different market segments, with their own unique preferences. The differences in previous studies are due to the data being collected from different locations. We collect a unique dataset from an online website about cruise reviews, and use it to provide empirical support for our explanations. We find that while all consumers prefer value for money the most, the second most important factor is public rooms for tourists headed to Alsaka, cabins for the ones headed to Mediterranean, and service for the ones headed to Caribbean. The findings of this study would be of value to the management of cruise companies in refining advertising message, provision of different cruise services, etc.

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