Identifying Risks in the Cruise Supply Chain: An Empirical Study in Shanghai, China

Abstract

The increased frequency and severe consequences of risks in the cruise industry have attracted increasing attention from both academics and practitioners, especially after the 2012 ‘Costa Concordia’ disaster and the 2020 coronavirus outbreak on the ‘Diamond Princess’. Although the literature on risk studies associated with the cruise industry and supply-chain risk management is growing, the extant literature lacks a study to view risks in the cruise industry associated with the supply chain. This paper addresses this gap by reviewing the literature on risks related to the cruise industry and general supply-chain risks to create a framework of cruise supply-chain risks. Then, semi-structured interviews were conducted to validate the identified risks and explore potential undiscovered risks. A novel risk typology of the cruise supply chain was then built based on the literature review and the empirical study. This includes macro risks, safety, security, and health risks, information risks, and supply risks. This framework can be applied for the purpose of systematically identifying the risks and their impacts on the cruise supply chain. This paper contributes to the development of a comprehensive cruise supply-chain risk classification with a detailed explanation of each risk in the cruise supply chain, which can be used by stakeholders in the cruise industry to identify and measure the impact of each risk. Additionally, this paper provides avenues for future research by scholars interested in assessing and managing cruise supply-chain risks.

The impacts of COVID-19 on the cruise industry based on an empirical study in China

“…From the cruise industry's perspective, ensuring a safe and healthy cruise is always what it aims to achieve [34] , [70] ; however, this image was fundamentally destroyed by COVID-19. Indeed, the reality is that infectious diseases are easier to outbreak on a cruise ship because of the confined environment and high population density, which was proved in the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Empirical Analysis of the Cruise Shipping Network in Asia

“…That is the ACSN is a small-world network. The degree distribution also shows that 60% of total ports have degree centrality values of 1-5 degrees, while 19 Figure 4 illustrates the in-degree and out-degree correlation of ports in the network. The ACSN has a positive correlation, indicating that the out-degree increases when indegree increases.…”

“…Even after cruise businesses return to a full resumption in China, the Chinese cruise market still needs to handle some long-term issues, such as the imbalance of inbound and outbound cruise tourism [15]. China is the dominant source market in Asia before the pandemic [19], but it has largely failed to attract an equal number of international passengers who do not consider it a popular cruise destination. In the future, China needs to provide attractive onshore activities, fly-cruise packages, and more policy and administrative support for customs clearance so that China can become both a top cruise-passenger source market and a popular cruise destination in Asia.…”

“…Table 2 shows the top ten cruise ports in ACSN with the largest degree centrality values. Singapore is the most connected port with the largest number of links,42, followed by Yokohama (28), Hong Kong (28), Shanghai (26), Kagoshima (26), Osaka (24), Ho Chi Minh City (24), Hiroshima (23), Darwin (22), Benoa (20), Busan (19), Keelung (19), Cairns (18), Nagasaki (18), Kochi (18) and Komodo Island (17). These ports also have the highest in-and out-degree centrality values.…”