Segmenting Cruise Consumers by Motivation for an Emerging Market: A Case of China

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Yue Jiao¹  Yating Hou²  Yui-yip Lau³ 

[1] College of Business Administration, Shanghai Business School;Department of Education, Party School of Linhai Municipal Party Committee of C.P.C.;Division of Business and Hospitality Management, College of Professional and Continuing Education, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

关键词: cruise ships;    cruise tourism;    cruise passenger;    motivation;    classification of cruisers;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2021.606785

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

After around four decades of fast growth, the cruise industry has become the most profitable and dynamic segment in the entire global leisure and tourism sector. Behind this growth is a significant shift in the profile of cruise consumers/passengers/tourists, with growth rates twice as fast as those of other types of tourists. China has become a strategic emerging market for the global cruise industry, quickly developing their cruise reception business and holding about 10% of the market share of global cruisers. In this paper, we examine and categorize various travel motivations of Chinese cruise tourists by means of a questionnaire via factor analysis, mean analysis, and K-cluster analysis. The results of the study indicate that Chinese cruise tourists are primarily encouraged to participate in cruise tourism by the motivational dimensions of family leisure/relaxation, natural and cultural exploration, bond/communication, social respect, tourism shopping, and cruise-promotion information sources. The strongest motivations for Chinese cruise tourists were found to be family leisure/relaxation and natural/cultural exploration. We identify four types of cruisers using the K-means cluster method. We find that for all cruiser demographics, leisure/relaxation is the most important motivational factor. Based on these results, we propose some specific solutions for expanding the customer pool in the Chinese cruise market.

【 授权许可】

CC BY