A Market Segmentation Analysis of Cruise Ship Tourists Visiting the Panama Canal Watershed: Opportunities for Ecotourism Development

Thurau, Brooke Beadles; Carver, Andrew D.; Mangun, Jean C.; Basman, Cem M.; Bauer, Gerald

doi:10.2167/joe138.0

Cited by 27 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…This somewhat surprising result might be influenced by the high density situation on cruise ships, as well as the short amount of time visitors are allocated for sightseeing trips. Overcrowding behaviour on day-tours and its resultant effect on cruise ship passenger satisfaction is a rather neglected area of research with potentially important implications for nature-based tourism product development for cruise lines (Thurau et al, 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi‐attribute trade‐off approach for advancing the management of marine wildlife tourism: a quantitative assessment of heterogeneous visitor preferences

Semeniuk

Haider

Beardmore

et al. 2008

Aquatic Conservation

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ABSTRACT1. Wildlife tourism can be prone to unmitigated development to promote visitor satisfaction that is all too often progressed at the cost of ecological integrity. A manager is thus faced with the dual task of enhancing the tourist experience and protecting the wildlife species. Accordingly, this mandate requires research into how tourists would respond to proposed wildlife-management plans.2. This study examines the heterogeneity of tourist preferences for wildlife management at a stingray-feeding attraction in the Cayman Islands, using a latent class stated preference choice model. A sample of visitors to Stingray City Sandbar (SCS) evaluated hypothetical wildlife viewing experiences in a discrete choice experiment. Its scenarios were characterized by seven attributes such as animal-feeding and handling rules, ecological outcomes, social crowding, and management cost (defined as a conservation access fee).3. The latent class segmentation identified two groups in the population: approximately 68% preferred the implementation of fairly strict management rules, while the other 32% valued more the maintenance of status quo with its intensive human } wildlife interactions. Despite the differences between the 'pro-management' and the 'pro-current' segments, both exhibited a preference for the continuation of feeding and handling the stingrays (albeit at different levels of intensity) suggesting that one effective way to implement any management actions is to alter the promotional and marketing strategies for SCS. Other survey questions on trip experience, conservation values, and socio-demographics were used to define these classes further, with the main distinguishing trait being the level of concern for potential impacts occurring at SCS. The discrepancies between the two segments became most obvious when calculating their respective market shares of support for alternative management strategies.4. This approach to determining visitor preferences can help explain how the various segments will be affected by management options, and therefore can provide the basis for developing feasible strategies that will assist wildlife managers in maximizing tourist satisfaction while achieving wildlife-protection goals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi‐attribute trade‐off approach for advancing the management of marine wildlife tourism: a quantitative assessment of heterogeneous visitor preferences

Semeniuk

Haider

Beardmore

et al. 2008

Aquatic Conservation

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“…At the beginning of the 21 st century, tourism worldwide represented about 6 percent of the global gross national product and employed more than 130 million people (Thurau 2004). In addition to economic benefits, the tourism industry has helped increase environmental awareness, and promoted the conservation of forest and wildlife natural areas.…”

Section: Cruise Ship Tourists and The Panama Canal Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cruise ship tourists passing through the Panama Canal recently indicated several key motivations for their travel-among them exposure to cultural and historical experiences, tours of historical sites, outdoor sports, wildlife viewing and bird watching, and security during family travel (Thurau 2004). Eco-Park with its past military history, and proposed facilities such as a visitors information center, butterfly garden, numerous trails for walking and bicycling, picnic and recreation areas, and animal rescue center, all surrounded by tropical forest, can be an adventurous stop for many of the Canal's short-term visitors.…”

Section: Cruise Ship Tourists and The Panama Canal Watershedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Panama eco-park: a protected urban forest

Weaver¹

2009

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“…Huang, 2009;Jones, 2011;Qu & Ping, 1999;Teye & Leclerc, 2003;Teye & Paris, 2011;Thurau et al, 2007). Of these approaches, the importancerating method is the most commonly used in the cruise-related literature.…”

Section: Quantitative Methods For Measuring Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Pull factors specific to destinations are often confused or conflated with push motives in broader travel research (Dann, 1981) as well as in cruise-specific research (Andriotis & Agiomirgianakis, 2010;Qu & Ping, 1999;Teye & Leclerc, 2003;Teye & Paris, 2011;Thurau et al, 2007). Few researchers have conducted dedicated studies into the pull factors of cruise motivation (Field et al, 1985;T.…”

Section: Cruise Vacation Pull Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cruise tourists’ perceptions of destination: Exploring push and pull motivational factors in the decision to take a cruise vacation

Whyte¹

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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...

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A Market Segmentation Analysis of Cruise Ship Tourists Visiting the Panama Canal Watershed: Opportunities for Ecotourism Development

Cited by 27 publications

References 8 publications

A multi‐attribute trade‐off approach for advancing the management of marine wildlife tourism: a quantitative assessment of heterogeneous visitor preferences

A multi‐attribute trade‐off approach for advancing the management of marine wildlife tourism: a quantitative assessment of heterogeneous visitor preferences

Panama eco-park: a protected urban forest

Cruise tourists’ perceptions of destination: Exploring push and pull motivational factors in the decision to take a cruise vacation

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