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1 INTRODUCTION

Cruise activity in terms of passenger sourcing and ship

deployment is concentrated in North America-

Caribbean and Europe-Mediterranean.. The largest

ship deployment area is the Caribbean and the

Mediterranean follows at second place. These two

areas attract around half (49%) of the cruise fleet

to the European passenger markets, which indicates

that proximity to the source markets is related to ship

deployment.

In 2018 the global cruise industry reached 28.5mil

passengers compared to 17.8mil in 2009, which

translates to a 27.5% growth (CLIA, 2019).

Nevertheless, the cruise industry is still a small market

within the tourism industry. The relative small size of

the market and the high capital investment for ship

acquisition have led to increased market concentration

the supply in lower berths (Soriani et al., 2009).

Investment in ever larger cruise ships remains strong

(Pinnock, 2014). Between 2008 and 2015, the number of

ships increased by 3% while capacity in lower berths

increased by 27% (Medcruise, 2016). The increased

market concentration means that a small number of

companies decide on ship deployment and cruise

destinations. It also means that destination

development is dependent on a limited pool of

decision makers.

ABSTRACT: The research focuses on the process and criteria utilised by cruise executives for ship deployment

and itinerary development. A Summative Content analysis approach is applied on 63 interviews of 89 cruise

executives between 2005 and 2018 sourced from commercial press. The results of the analysis indicate that cruise

lines focus on yield maximisation through a stepwise process that starts with the evaluation of cruise demand for

an area, followed by an analysis of the region(s) and is completed with the selection of the home port(s) and ports

of calls. The process is continuously revised based on actual demand, yield results and guest feedback. Moreover,

Nevertheless, the process of cruise ship

Furthermore, although there is a growing literature

organisation of the process and of the key drivers of

decision making creating ground for future research.

The paper is organised into four sections. The first

section focuses on the literature regarding the factors

affecting cruise itinerary and ship deployment. The

second section presents the methodology of the content

analysis. The fourth section presents the findings

industry (Papathanassis and Beckmann, 2011).

However, literature on ship deployment, itinerary

planning and port selection is not very extensive. There

is an imbalance of research intensity on those three

constituents. Existing literature focuses either on the

competitive characteristics of a homeport or the key

drivers of itinerary planning of luxury cruises.

Literature on Ship Deployment seems void and is an

unexplored field (Table 1). Primary data is commonly

sourced through questionnaires and in cases of

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stakeholders are the primary source of data. This group

of stakeholders and shoreside service providers offer

useful insight as to the cruise lines’ requirements upon

visiting a cruise port. It also features a broader

perspective through dealings with many if not all,

cruise lines. Therefore, research based on the views of

From a methodological perspective, research on

homeport selection, within the above constraints, is

exclusively based on primary data from

questionnaires. Research on Port of Call selection

indicates a more diverse approach with the use of both

primary and secondary data and the application of

within an itinerary and its success is directly connected

with passenger traffic and cruise ship calls. This is not

2.3 Literature on Itinerary planning

planning process begins. The itinerary is a critical

component of the cruise product impacting costs and

revenues. When the itinerary is decided, cruise product

costs are considered fixed (Bull, 1996). With a high

percentage of fixed costs, the occupancy rate of the ship

success of the cruise and for cruise traffic at cruise

destinations.

Existing literature focuses either on ship scheduling

inland connections (Marti, 1990; McCalla, 1998; Gui

and Russo, 2011). These logistics features also

determine the type of cruise traffic a port is most likely

to attract as home and mixed ports tend to promote

infrastructure characteristics while ports of call focus

on location attractiveness.

In the luxury cruise sector, cruise infrastructure is

less important, and there is a greater emphasis on the

exotic features and diversity of destinations. Luxury

cruise ships also plan port calls with the aim to avoid

consensus on the parameters affecting cruise itinerary

planning. These fall within two broad areas: Marine

Logistics (infrastructure, superstructure and location)

and destination attractiveness, which includes a large

Jordan (2013), utilised questionnaires examining

reduction and sense-making effort that takes a volume

of qualitative material and attempts to identify core

consistencies and meanings.”

Content analysis can be both quantitative and

qualitative. The quantitative approach usually entails

random sampling techniques with the aim of validity

of statistical inferences and is usually deductive in

There are three approaches to qualitative content

analysis (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Conventional

Context Analysis, where categories are derived from

As literature is not available for all aspects of the

common in studies that analyze manuscript types in a

particular journal or specific content in textbooks

(Hsieh and Shannon, 2005).

analysis method. The data collection follows the

planning stage and the process concludes with the data

analysis stage.

3.1 Planning and Data collection

The research aims to explore, organise and analyse the

key decision parameters adopted by cruise lines

the ease of access to data, the adopted approach allows

the collection of many views coming from an array of

company sizes and market focus. More importantly, it

allows a collection of comparative views within a

period of time which supports the analysis of

underlying meanings. On the other hand, interviews

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are screened prior to publishing and lack spontaneity.

They might also serve incidental or contemporary

priorities of the interviewee, which can lead

researchers to under or overvalue findings. This

limitation is countered with the collection of data

within a time period that helps to eliminate time-

specific priorities of the interviewees.

magazine.html) published quarterly and the annual

special report of “Itinerary Planning” of the Cruise and

Ferry magazine

(https://www.cruiseandferry.net/magazines/Cruise-

Ferry-Itinerary-Planning). In total 63 pieces were

identified with 89 interviewees from 38 cruise

companies (Table 2).

3.2 Data analysis

The interviews were organised by date, source, article

undertaken. The consolidated words were again

ranked by frequency and a code was assigned. The 25

most frequent codes were examined for context within

the original phrases. Based on context the codes were

expanded to include additional ungrouped words.

Thus, for instance, all geographical names and

nationalities were grouped into the “Specific Location”

code and specific itinerary durations were

incorporated into the “Itinerary” code. This process

was iterated three times aiming to include as many

were uncoded (appendix 1 presents the codes and

frequencies).

The adopted analysis falls within the quantitative

conventional context analysis approach and provides

useful findings regarding important elements based on

frequency of word use. For instance, “itinerary” is a

more frequently used word than “destination”. This

indicates that rotation and sequence is more important

than the actual visited places. However, further

analysis was applied based on the research's

exploratory aim. The codes derived from the

quantitative analysis were utilised to locate the phrases

that contained the most frequent words. One of the

necessary. When in agreement that a phrase had more

than one underlying meaning, a second code was

assigned (Appendix 2 provides contextual coding

results).

The primary driver of the deployment decision is

The length of the cruise season also affects the yield.

The later point relates to market analysis. As ships

deployed by each company provides a better

indication of the prospects of a destination. This can be

particularly useful to destinations and policymakers

alike during the evaluation of port investments and

cruise prospects.

With the above in mind, the question is how cruise

lines choose the deployment area from the available

cruise offerings are revisited during deployment

evaluation. This means that opening up new areas or

itineraries is not an easy task due to lack of yield data.

Therefore, destinations that aspire to be included in

cruise offerings need to commit with a long term

strategy.

demand trend. As trends and passenger tastes change,

so will deployment and destinations. This, however,

also means that destination volumes will also change

over time, which makes cruise port investment

evaluation more challenging and with more extended

payback periods.

incentives take the form of discount on port handling

fees and/or port dues or direct payment to cruise lines

per passenger. This practice impacts on the

to attract cruise traffic in the long term, has not been

studied in the literature and deserves analysis as they

impact port competition and port investment appraisal

and also have a socio-economic aspect related to

Once the area of deployment is decided, cruise lines fill

in the itinerary, as Douwes (2016) highlighted “First,

we put the deployment together, which is the general

area the ship will sail during the year. Once we have

that, we go in and fill the itinerary”. The objective is to

create commercially appealing itineraries. The selling

point of a cruise is still the destination and itinerary,

although many Lines increasingly promote the ship as

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image (Table 3). The adopted image directs focus on

specific source market sections. By return the cruise

line’s itineraries adapt to the needs of the market

affects distance between destinations. Although a

Luxury brands increasingly offer short cruises that are

more people, which in turn increase yield. Short cruises

enjoy the ship’s amenities and events. Newcomers

usually book for the destinations and thus pay

particular attention to the ports and number of calls.

Jamie Haller (2005) noted “Experienced cruisers tend

to appreciate longer sailings with more sea-days, while

first timers are attracted more by shorter cruises and by

the evaluation of the safety characteristics of the area.

Safety is evaluated from two perspectives: The vessel

perspective and the human perspective, both

passengers and crew.

4.3.1 Homeport selection

etc. As Marc Miller (2016) put it “The port

infrastructure will only become more important in

coming years. When you look at the orderbook –

almost everything is big ships, and I think that trend

will continue, and the ports will have a challenge

trying to accommodate them. Today your average ship

size is at least 4,000 guests”.

ship not normally expected by a port of call. Richard

Vogel (2014, p. 20) notes: “Ports need to recognise that,

if they want to become turnaround ports, there is more

the availability and loading of supplies, water,

bunkers, slop reception facilities, the possibility for

small repairs etc. Port auxiliary services are usually

available at ports with large volumes and multiple

functions. This means that cruise lines need to compete

with other port users for port space, berth availability

and timely service provision, which renders port

congestion a growing challenge for cruise lines.

The key element of a homeport is its location.

Location is so important that can sometimes outweigh

are raised by Thorton (2014) “ Because of the size of our

ships, the infrastructure has to be a certain size to give

a good experience, but if we could find attractive places

closer together, we would be interested”.

The second aspect of homeport location deals with

Interestingly, the destinations within the itinerary

cost. The result between revenue and port call cost

needs to be positive for all ports in the string. Simon

Douwes (2014) noted “The shore excursion revenue is

a very important aspect for us, many ports in the world

have port costs higher than the shore excursion income,

and those calls costs us money. That is not the case in

However, the more attractive points of interest in a

port of call, the more ships and passengers it attracts.

This can lead to “people pollution” that diminishes

passenger experience and ultimately reduces demand

for the itinerary and the port, as noted by Peterson

(2018) “The thing I worry about more is port

congestion” and “We will change itineraries if there is

visitors’ satisfaction is greater. This is especially true as

cruise Lines always record the experience of

The aim of the latter research was twofold. The first

Our findings indicate that the whole process is very

technical, multidimensional and monitored

continuously by the cruise line’s analysts for

immediate adjustments. On that aspect, two factors

seem to be of primary importance: Yield prospects and

Marketability.

The maximization of yield begins with a safety

evaluation of relevant aspects such as climate, social

and geopolitical issues of the area. Vital role in the

profitability rates apart from the actual ticket price is

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The cruise planning deployment process would

have been incomplete if there was no port of call

evaluation and selection. Our findings indicate that the

primary concern is safety. The latter refers to the safety

of the vessel and the safety of both passengers and

crew. The criteria, though, for selection of a port of call

and homeport are significantly different.

revenue stream for the cruise lines. The latter finding is

essential to port marketers and destination managers,

indicating that an alternative port tariff policy may be

more appropriate than the existing one, heavily

dependent upon cost prising and demand elasticity.

REFERENCES