Cruise Tourism, Attractions, and Hotel Operations

Posted on Jan 19, 2025 in Business Administration and Management (BAM)

Cruise Tourism

Cruises are mainly concentrated towards short sea journeys, about a week. Cruises can take many forms, from small-scale specialist ships to gigantic mass entertainment ships. Cruising has become a significant tourist industry. Big cruisers are like floating resorts where guests can enjoy luxury and entertainment while moving towards their multiple destinations. Companies are now offering bigger cruise ships, which bring economies of scale. The international market for cruising has been in continuous growth. The main cruise markets are the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, with Alaska and Northern Europe also popular during the summer season.

Attractions and Destinations

Attractions

A place that draws visitors by providing something of interest or pleasure, which is easily delimited in geographical areas.

Destinations

Larger areas that include a number of individual attractions together with support services required by tourists.

Attraction Ownership

Attractions are owned and managed by a range of organizations, trusts, and individuals, working in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. Large commercial ventures dominate the sector. A high level of state involvement in attraction funding is evident across Europe and in other parts of the world, like Canada, Singapore, and Malaysia. There is little public sector intervention in attractions in the USA.

Perception of Attractions

Some visitors perceive an attraction as an attraction, while others may not. For example, sites associated with disaster and death have become tourism attractions, known as “Dark Tourism” (WTC site & Holocaust). These attractions pose an ethical and philosophical dilemma and are likely to be perceived differently by different groups of people.

The Success of Tourist Attractions

The success of tourist attractions depends on several factors:

  1. The type of attraction or product being offered.
  2. The market demand for the product.
  3. The professional management skills and the operator’s available resources.
  4. The ease of access from major routes and centers of tourist and resident populations.
  5. The opening hours that should be appropriate.
  6. Provision and quality of onsite amenities such as parking, visitor center, signs, shops, guides, toilets, and litter bins.
  7. Quality of service, including staff appearance, attitude, behavior, and competence.
  8. The mood, expectation, behavior, and attitude of visitors.
  9. Value for money for the product.

Operational Performance of Hotels

The operational performance of hotels can be measured by:

  1. Occupancy Rates: How many people stayed in the hotel as a percentage of available rooms.
  2. Average Room Rate (ARR): The average price charged for a room, taking into account the highest and lowest rates, which are then averaged.
  3. Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR): The amount of revenue from each guest that is received after the costs of supplying the room have been deducted, as a form of profit.

Marketing Concepts

  1. Production Concept: The idea that consumers will favor products that are available or highly affordable.
  2. Product Concept: The idea that consumers will favor products that offer the most quality, performance, and features. Organizations should devote efforts to making continuous product improvements.
  3. Selling Concept: The idea that consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s product unless it undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort.
  4. Marketing Concept: The idea that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants of the target markets and delivering the desired satisfaction better than competitors do.
  5. Societal Marketing Concept: The idea that a company should make good marketing decisions by considering wants, the company’s requirements, consumers’ long-term interests, and society’s long-run interests.