Motivation is one of the greatest drivers of human behavior, yet travel motivation in the context of cruise tourism remains an understudied topic. Although a limited number of cruise specific studies focus on push (travel motives) and pull (destination attributes) factors, the push–pull relationship has not been directly measured. Furthermore, pull factors have not been examined in detail in terms of onboard (ship) and onshore (ports of call) attributes. Understanding this relationship can help inform the marketing and development of the cruise product. This study measures the importance of push and pull factors and the relationship between them in the decision‐making process of cruise travelers. Results identify the main motives driving the desire to travel and the cruise destination attributes that draw travelers to a specific cruise vacation. A number of potential “product bundles” or market segments are also identified on the basis of strongly related push and pull factors.

No 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...

No abstract