Categorizing Cruise Lines In The North America Market By Passenger Perceived Experience

Abstract

Modern leisure cruising is one of the fastest-growing forms of international tourism. Academic researchers have studied leisure-cruise consumers, but there is less research on the cruise industry, in particular on the structure of the industry. For example, the only method used for categorizing cruise lines is based on price and positioning strategies. This study takes a data-driven approach and proposes a new means for categorizing cruise lines by cruiser perceived experience. Using JD Power customer satisfaction data collected from 3003 cruisers, the seven largest seven cruise lines in the North America market are clustered into three categories based on cruiser specific experiences. The categories show significant differences in cruiser experience. Crosstab analyses shows that the categories are also associated with the reasons that consumers select specific cruise lines. Furthermore, for different cruise line categories, the importance of experience components and the relationship between cruiser experience and loyalty are different.