<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Cruise tourism has experienced an enormous growth in the last few decades and the future of this industry is also encouraging. The Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea, the two major destinations, offer the most exciting itineraries since the beginning of this industry. The cruise passenger’s perception about destinations, onboard and onshore aspects have been less investigated in the past years but this information shall be used for planning and developing marketing materials, new cruise itineraries, ship designs and shore excursions. The following study was conducted in Romania and aims to clarify the Romanian passenger’s perception about cruise destinations and their preferences. Using a quantitative method, the research is based on some of the most representative international studies as well as a survey sent to the most active customers of a cruise travel agency in Romania, who have shown interest in this kind of trip at least once. As a qualitative research method, a convenience sample of participants were recruited through the researcher’s professional contacts in the cruise and travel industry. Among other conclusions following this research, the most important aspect for a Romanian guest is the itinerary of the cruise ship, followed by the price and the embarkation port. The number of sea days, the service quality onboard and the cruise line are also relevant when choosing a cruise vacation.</p></abstract>

Cruise tourism has experienced an enormous growth in the last few decades and the future of this industry is also encouraging. The Caribbean and the Mediterranean Sea, the two major destinations, offer the most exciting itineraries since the beginning of this industry. The cruise passenger’s perception about destinations, onboard and onshore aspects have been less investigated in the past years but this information shall be used for planning and developing marketing materials, new cruise itineraries, ship designs and shore excursions. The following study was conducted in Romania and aims to clarify the Romanian passenger’s perception about cruise destinations and their preferences. Using a quantitative method, the research is based on some of the most representative international studies as well as a survey sent to the most active customers of a cruise travel agency in Romania, who have shown interest in this kind of trip at least once. As a qualitative research method, a convenience sample of participants were recruited through the researcher’s professional contacts in the cruise and travel industry. Among other conclusions following this research, the most important aspect for a Romanian guest is the itinerary of the cruise ship, followed by the price and the embarkation port. The number of sea days, the service quality onboard and the cruise line are also relevant when choosing a cruise vacation.

Cruise industry in Romania – An emerging market

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Cruise industry in Romania \u2013 An emerging market"}

Cruise tourism has experienced an enormous growth in the last few decades and the future of this industry is also encouraging. The Caribbean and the...

Cruise industry in Romania – An emerging market

Published Online: Nov 29, 2019

Page range: 528 - 536

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2019-0046

Keywords
cruise tourism, Romanian market, demand, perception, cruise destinations

© 2019 Emanuela Anton, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Cruise industry in Romania – An emerging market

Published Online: Nov 29, 2019

Page range: 528 - 536

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2019-0046

Keywordscruise tourism, Romanian market, demand, perception, cruise destinations

© 2019 Emanuela Anton, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
cruise tourism, Romanian market, demand, perception, cruise destinations