Factors that Influence Cruise Tourists’ Decision-

Making at the Destination

Lei Zhang

A thesis submitted for the degree of

Master of Commerce
of the University of Otago, Dunedin
New Zealand

September 2019
Abstract
Tourism is a complex and comprehensive industrial sector comprised of multiple major
stakeholders and players who work in unison to ensure that their local and international clients
get the best experiences. And the cruise tourism industry is among the fastest-growing
economic segments in the globe. The general purpose of this studies is to enable researcher to
understand the decision-making process made by cruise tourists, and the findings help service
providers to identify markets that they can target, and also enhance customer satisfaction rates.
Researcher have conceptualised several models to help in understanding the decision-making
process of cruise tourists. On the other hand, there are fewer studies which have focused on
examining the factors empirically. Examining the decision-making processes among tourists
in purchasing products and services helps tourism practitioners to be better equipped to offer
higher quality services to visitors and thus enhance customer satisfaction.

This study adopted a qualitative research approach to pursue research on the factors influencing
cruise passengers’ activity decision-making in a tourism destination. The author embraced a
realism paradigm as a research philosophy often utilised in research to derive the right
knowledge from science as the foundation of research. The researcher utilised intercept
interviews to collect data on the factors influencing passengers’ decision-making activity in a
tourism destination. Dunedin Railway Station and Port Chalmers were selected as the locations
for the real-time interviews to get the opinions of the passengers while on the move. The
researcher used thematic analysis to highlight and emphasise the crucial information that would
lead to the result making the process and a conclusion of the study. Analysis of the data
collected showed that there is a significant difference in the behaviour of cruise passengers
compared to other tourism activities, particularly in the decision-making process. The
contribution of the study is that it presents a straight-forward model that can be used in
exploring the behavioural patterns and the decision-making processes of cruise passengers and
tourists.

Keywords: tourism, destination marketing, cruise, cruise destination, cruise tourism

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Acknowledgements

I am indebted to numerous people who have helped me in developing this thesis. I would first
of all like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Robert Hamlin and Dr Lisa
McNeill, who have guided me throughout my research. I believe I had the best team to work
with, and could not have asked for better supervisors.

Also, I would like to thank the Marketing Department, my ‘bestie’ Amanda Liu, and my
colleagues, Sadiq Mohd and Balkrushna Potdar who have helped guide me and have made this
journey so memorable.

Finally, a special thanks to my mum, who has always believed in me, guided me and
encouraged me to strive towards my goals.

Thank you all for everything.

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Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. i
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iii
List of Tables and Figures ................................................................................................. vi
Chapter One: Introduction ................................................................................................. 1

1.1 Research Background ..................................................................................................... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 2
1.3 Significance of the Study and Justification ...................................................................... 3
1.4 Objectives of the Study .................................................................................................. 4
1.5 Overview of the Research Methodology......................................................................... 5
1.6 Key Definitions ............................................................................................................... 5
1.7 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................... 6
1.8 Chapter Summary .......................................................................................................... 7

Chapter Two: Literature Review ........................................................................................ 8

2.1 An Overview of the Cruise Industry .............................................................................. 10

2.2 Cruise Tourism ............................................................................................................. 13
2.3 Defining a Tourist Destination ...................................................................................... 15
2.3.1 Destination Tourism ..................................................................................................................... 16
2.3.2 Destination Tourism Marketing ................................................................................................... 18
2.3.3 Cruise Destination Marketing ...................................................................................................... 20

2.4 Cruise Tourists’ Decision-Making .................................................................................. 22

2.4.1 Vacation Tourist Behaviour Model .............................................................................................. 23
2.4.2 Comprehensive Model for Tourist Decision-Making ................................................................... 26
2.4.3 Consumer Information Processing ............................................................................................... 31

2.5 Research Question ....................................................................................................... 44

2.6 Summary of the Literature Review ............................................................................... 46

Chapter Three: Methodology ........................................................................................... 48

3.1 Qualitative Research Methodologies ............................................................................ 50

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 3.2 Research Paradigms ..................................................................................................... 50
3.3 Method of Data Collection ........................................................................................... 54
3.3.1 Intercept Interviews ..................................................................................................................... 55
3.3.2 Use of Web Info ........................................................................................................................... 56
3.3.3 Selection of Location and Population .......................................................................................... 57
3.3.4 Recording of the Data .................................................................................................................. 59

3.4 Data Analysis Method .................................................................................................. 59

3.4.1 Coding Data and Themes identification ....................................................................................... 60

3.5 Validity and Limitations................................................................................................ 60

3.6 Ethics Consideration ..................................................................................................... 61
3.7 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 62

Chapter Four: Findings and Discussion ............................................................................. 63

4.1 Themes and Coding ...................................................................................................... 63

4.2 Psychological Perception of time in decision-making .................................................... 66
4.3 Price Perspectives in Decision-Making .......................................................................... 70
4.4 Weather Variability in Decision-Making ....................................................................... 74
4.5 The level of expertise and experience in decision-making ............................................ 78
4.6 Psychological Perception of External Stimuli in Decision-Making .................................. 80
4.7 Cruise Tourists’ Feedback on Third-party Website ........................................................ 83
4.8 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 84

Chapter Five: Conclusion and Implications ....................................................................... 86

5.1 Research Conclusion and Contribution ......................................................................... 86

5.1.1 Research Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 86
5.1.2 Research Contribution ................................................................................................................. 88

5.2 Implications of the Study.............................................................................................. 94

5.3 Limitations and Opportunities for Future Research ...................................................... 95
5.4 Chapter Summary ........................................................................................................ 97

References....................................................................................................................... 98
Appendices .................................................................................................................... 118

Appendix One – Interview Protocol ........................................................................................ 118

Appendix Two – University of Otago Human Ethics Committee .............................................. 119

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Appendix Three - Cruise Tourists’ Feedback Regarding their Day in Dunedin .......................... 128

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List of Tables and Figures

Table 1. Factors Affecting Decision-Making among Tourists from Previous Studies ........... 37
Table 2. Summary of Research Paradigm ............................................................................... 51
Table 3. Summary of the Sample Population .......................................................................... 58
Table 4. Summary of the Codes and Themes .......................................................................... 65

Figure 1. Global Cruise Tourism Passengers, 1989 to 2018 ................................................... 12

Figure 2. Vacation Tourist Behaviour Model.......................................................................... 24
Figure 3. Decision-Making Process In 7 Steps ....................................................................... 26
Figure 4. A Basic Model Of Complex Decision-Making........................................................ 29
Figure 5. Information Sources for a Purchase Decision .......................................................... 34
Figure 6. Conceptual Model for Factors that Influence Tourists’ Activity Decision-Making 89

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Chapter One: Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Consumer behaviourism has become an area of interest in tourism research. According to

Cohen, Prayag, and Moital (2014), consumer behaviours involve the process of making
decisions, experiences, ideas, and activities. The process followed by individuals when
choosing their travel destination has received significant attention from researchers in the
recent past. The general purpose of such studies is to enable the researcher to understand the
decision-making process made by tourists, and the findings help service providers to identify
markets that they can target, and also enhance customer satisfaction rates (Han, Lee, & Kim,
2018). Pallis and Vaggelas (2019) argue that the decision-making process followed by tourists
entails narrowing down from the available alternatives until the individual chooses which of
the goods or services they want to purchase. Research has also shown that this decision-making
process can be influenced by such factors as the tourist’s marital roles, familiarity with different
destinations, gender, frequency of travel, spouse, lifecycle, friends and relatives, cognitive
distance, culture, advertising, local experts on the destination, as well as group processes (Pallis
& Vaggelas, 2019). These factors influence the tourist destination choice and the rationale for
selecting a particular destination over others. For instance, an individual can choose a tourist
destination based on positive word-of-mouth recommendations from close friends and/or
relatives who have experienced services from the destination. This is also shows that customer
satisfaction is another factor that influences decision-making among tourists in choosing a
tourist destination.

The cruise industry is characterised by fast-paced growth, which has resulted in the emergence
of several options for cruise customers, and this has also contributed to increased competition
between companies in the cruise sector (Han, Hwang, Lee, & Kim, 2019). The rampant growth
in the cruise industry has also interested and drawn the attention of the researcher as they seek
to determine and analyse the various factors which influence the decision-making process of
customers. For instance, the decision-making process of customers in the cruise industry has
been established to be a complex process since a variety of factors influences it. The researcher

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has also developed models to help in understanding the tourists’ destination choices, and one
of the most common models is the choice sets model. The model was considered a rather
straightforward application mode that consists of three major stages: the initial set, late
consideration set, and the final set. These stages are followed by tourists when choosing their
tourist destination. The final choice of travellers in the model is a result of a reduced set of
choices among a limited number of potential choices (Radic, 2019).

Further, the researcher has postulated that a decision-making process entails the elimination of
alternatives until an individual remains with their desired choice suggesting that the choice set
model is the most appropriate model to apply when conducting research on cruise vacations
(Van Merriënboer & De Bruin, 2014). However, the decision-making process is influenced by
various significant factors, which can be categorised as push and pull factors. The pull factor
is supported by the Information Integration Theory, which basically suggests that the decision-
making process among travellers is influenced by the features of a service or product; travellers
rely on the attributes of the product or service to make their final decision on whether or not to
purchase it (Van Merriënboer & De Bruin, 2014). Therefore, organisations in the cruise sector
of the economy delve deeply in understanding the purchase patterns of consumers to allow
them to understand the different factors that influence their decision-making trends. The central
goal of the study was “to develop a model by investigate and discover the factors that influence
the cruise passengers’ activities in decision-making at a cruise tourism destination.”

1.2 Problem Statement

Despite the rapid growth of the global cruise industry, one of the major challenges that
marketers are unable to understand the consumers’ decision-making patterns and provide
appropriate services that will facilitate the process of meeting the desires of the consumers.
According to Kayahan, Vanblarcom, and Klein (2018), the value brought by passengers to
cruises is immense as they form the consumer base in these vessels. Successful firms in the
cruise industry are those that develop different measures and strategies to understand the
purchase behaviours of their consumers and work towards the attainment of ultimate customer
satisfaction. Numerous studies that discuss the purchase behaviours of consumers have been

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coined (Kayahan, Vanblarcom, & Klein 2018), however, only a small segment of scholarly
research focuses on understanding the decision-making process of consumers. Therefore, this
research strived to seal the loophole and address the problem by developing a model that
analyses the factors that influence the decision-making activity of cruise passengers at a
tourism destination.

1.3 Significance of the Study and Justification

The hospitality and tourism industry is a rapidly evolving sector and contributes to a large
percentage of the GDPs of most nations. Consequently, most governments allocate massive
resources to ensure that the industry thrives. Divisekera (2010) asserted that there exist two
types of tourists; local and international tourists. Domestic tourists are individuals who visit
various tourist destinations within their countries while foreign visitors leave their nations to
enjoy the experiences of other states. The rapid rise in the number of players in the global cruise
line industry is an indicator that the sector is one of the most thriving in the globe (Quandt,2015).
According to Véronneau and Roy (2012), the key characteristics of this industry that make it
has a non-uniform trend include the presence of a few but dominant competitors that attract
high-end consumers from different regions of the globe, increase in the numbers of cruise ships,
and a growth in the number of corporations in this sector that creates demand for qualified
workforce.

The significance of the study is that it contributes to both theoretical and managerial by
developing a model that can be adopted to explain the factors that influence cruise passengers’
decision-making process regarding the activities that they will pursue while on the cruise ships.
The study identifies the loopholes that exist in previous models and develops a framework with
a high predictor value. The components of the framework are discussed in depth to enable more
thorough comprehension of individual determinants of tourist activities among cruise
passengers. The model can further be manipulated by other scholars to suit decision-making in
other segments within the tourism sector.

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The final significance of the study that justified it was that it assists in understanding consumer
behaviour and choices. De Grosbois (2016) argued that typical cruise companies have the
liberty of controlling the activities that can take place within these environments, thereby
making the tourists have the choice of estimate activities. The disadvantage of leaving the
customers with limited control is that the rate of satisfaction is substantially reduced. According
to De Grosbois (2016), modern cruises communicate all their packages and permit a range of
activities through their marketing agencies and platforms. Therefore, customers can choose
from the wide range of products being offered thereby enhancing their freedoms and
satisfaction rates. An understanding of consumer behaviour and choices assist the firms in
incorporating activities that would excite the customers resulting in increased satisfaction.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

The study’s principal objective was to develop a model to identify the factors that influence
the decision-making activity of cruise passengers at a tourism destination. The research focused
on the exploration of the concept of passenger decision-making using the vacation-consumer
model to understand the dynamics of decision-making and the activities that most cruise
passengers or customers would prefer while on vacation. Therefore, the research sought to
provide an in-depth understanding of the behaviour of consumers in the cruise tourism segment,
particularly the decision-making endeavour of the passengers. The specific objectives of the
study included:

• To analyse cruise passengers’ decision-making behaviour

• To discover the factors that influence the determination of activities to be pursued at
the cruise destination

In attempting to achieve those objectives, this study sought to address the following question:

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 What are the factors that influence cruise passengers’ activity
decision-making at a tourism destination?

1.5 Overview of the Research Methodology

The study explored different pieces of literature before determining the research gap to be
addressed. The qualitative research method was found to be the most suitable for the research
due to its ability to explore the different factors that influence passengers’ decision-making
activity in a tourism destination. The adopted research method was beneficial in gathering facts
regarding the opinions and thoughts of different respondents to understand the nature of the
decision-making process. The research further used realism paradigms to guide the process of
interpreting the data that was derived from the respondents. Consequently, the adopted
paradigms were found to be a perfect fit for the qualitative research method. Data was collected
using intercept interviews after the selection of sites and identification of samples. The
interviews were recorded, stored, and analysed in great detail before presenting the findings.
Additionally, thematic analysis was used to code and identify the various patterns that existed
in the derived findings. The significance of the adopted methodology was its simplicity and
ability to yield valid and reliable results.

1.6 Key Definitions

Cruise tourism
The activity of cruising has gained recognition in contemporary tourism as witnessed by the
rapid growth of the segment within the general tourism industry (Polat, 2015). This author
defines cruise as “a voyage on a ship undertaken wholly for reasons of leisure and recreation”
(p. 439).

Destination tourism

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Destination in tourism refers to “a place or point aimed at” (Viken & Granas, 2016, p. 21).
Therefore, destination tourism entails the aspect of tourism where individuals or tourists visit
a predetermined geographical location, major attraction site, or political jurisdiction to gain a
broad range of satisfying and memorable experiences.

Tourist Behaviour
Tourist behaviour entails the activities involving obtaining, consuming, and disposing of
tourism products and services, including decision processes (Cohen, Prayag, & Moital, 2014).

Tourist decision-making
Tourist decision-making is the judgment by a visitor on various alternations while making
tourism destination choices or purchase intentions, particularly in the cruise segment as used
in this study (Smallman, & Moore, 2010).

1.7 Structure of the Thesis

The study on factors influencing cruise passenger’ decision-making activity at a tourism

destination has been organised in five distinctive chapters, the abstract, and references.

The introduction chapter provides some background information regarding the research
concept, the problem that the study aimed at solving, and justifies the research. Other concepts
entailed in the introduction section include the research goals and objective, an overview of the
methods used to gather and analyse data and the key terminologies that the thesis will use.

The literature review chapter examines and critically investigates previous pieces of
literature to explore the research concept. The section is guided by the study’s main objective
that is to develop a model to discover the factors that influence the decision-making activity of
cruise passengers at a tourism destination. Therefore, the literature review encompasses
concepts such as cruise tourism, destination tourism, and cruise tourist decision-making.
Moreover, the literature review section provides the basic platform for the creation of the
conceptual framework.

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The methodology chapter provides a comprehensive outlook of the methods used in the
collection and analysis of the data used to inform the research. Additionally, chapter three
presents the validity and reliability of these findings in addition to the ethical considerations
that were made to ensure the integrity of the research.

The results and discussion chapter presents the findings of the research and examines the
themes derived from the findings in-depth. The significance of this chapter is that it serves as
the backbone of the study whereby all data regarding the research concept is explored in great
detail and discussed in light of the research questions and objectives.

The conclusion and implication chapter concludes the whole thesis and also provides the
implications of the study to both theoretical and practical aspects in addition to providing
recommendations for future studies. The limitations and delimitations of the study are also
explored in detail.

1.8 Chapter Summary

In summary, the rapid rise in the number of players in the global cruise line industry is an
indicator that the sector is one of the most thriving on the globe. The chapter successfully
explains the main research concept that is decision-making among cruise tourists in the most
appropriate activity that they should undertake. The significance of the study is that it presents
a wide overview of the cruise industry by providing the roles of various stakeholders and
human resources in guaranteeing the satisfaction of customers. Therefore, this chapter creates
an avenue for the examination of the different pieces of literature to investigate the research
objective that is to develop a model to find out the factors that influence the decision-making
activity of cruise passengers at a tourism destination.

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Chapter Two: Literature Review

This chapter review looks at the influential factors that guide tourists towards selecting a
vacation destination. It is expected that cruise customers should evaluate several attributes of
destinations before settling on the activities to undertake during the cruise vacation experience.
On the other hand, destination managers rely on effective destination marketing to help tourists
develop an image of the destination and influence the destination decision-making process. In
this regard, the literature review is divided into six sections.

Section 2.1 provides the cruise industry overview, describing the nature and characteristics of
the corporations within this sector. The section highlights the types of corporations that are
dominating the industry while defining the responsibilities of their joint corporations. Section
2.2 defines cruise tourism and highlights its various unique characteristics which makes it
different from other methods of tourism and travelling.

Section 2.3 addresses the definition of tourist destination while focusing on destination tourism,
destination tourism marketing and cruise destination marketing, alongside their constituting
elements. Section 2.4 expounds on cruise tourists' decision-making processes through theories
of decision-making such as the vacation tourist behaviour model, a comprehensive model for
decision-making, consumer information processing. This section focusing on an information
search as well as factors affecting cruise tourist decision-making processes such as time, price,
weather, familiarity and expertise. Section 2.5 presents the research question for the thesis
concerning the essential points and research gaps from the literature.

Section 2.6 offers a chapter summary and discussion of the research gap in the decision-making
process. Through the discussion of the research gap, the paper will examine how factors such
as time, price, weather, familiarity and expertise influence the tourists' final decision on
destination.

The six sections are as follows:

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2.1 An Overview of the Cruise Industry
2.2 Cruise Tourism
2.3 Defining a Tourist Destination
2.3.1 Destination Tourism
2.3.2 Destination Tourism Marketing
2.3.3 Cruise Destination Marketing
2.4 Cruise Tourists’ Decision-Making Process
2.4.1 Vacation Tourist Behaviour Model
2.4.2 Comprehensive Model for Decision-making
2.4.3 Consumer Information Processing
2.4.3.1 Focusing on Information Search
The Marketer Information
2.4.3.2 Factors Affecting Cruise Tourist Decision-making

Time, Price, Weather, Familiarity and expertise

2.4.3.3 The Research Gap

2.5 Research Questions
2.6 Summary of the Literature Review

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 2.1 An Overview of the Cruise Industry

The tourism industry is facing drastic developments and transformation due to globalisation.
The Cruise sector is a genuinely developed and globalised tourism industry. The key players
in this industry are multinational firms that have been formed through foreign international
acquisitions, joint ventures, capital investments, and mergers (Brida, Garrido, & Devesa, 2012).
The number of ships and sailing trips that they make across the world have significantly
increased. Various international joint corporations have been formed around the globe to
regulate, manage, and control cruise lines across the borders. The joint corporations have been
mandated to regulate cruise line costs (wages for the crews, taxes, and registration fees for the
cruise lines).

Additionally, the corporations are obligated to ensure strict adherence to environmental,

international, and national labour and safety regulations (Boy, 2011). Consequently,
globalisation in the cruise industry has resulted in a significant increase in numbers and
diversity of international passengers who are always travelling across the world to quench their
exploration desires. With the increased global demand for cruise lines, global competition has
faced the industry in all dimensions. However, the cruise lines' capital and physical mobility
have facilitated ships' relocations to meet these global demands satisfactorily (Dowling &
Weeden, 2017). Through these examples, it can be affirmed that the supply-side and demand-
side of the cruise industry is globalised (Brida et al., 2012). Therefore, Henry, Hamlin, &
Simpson (2015) ascertain that cruise passengers can be segmented based on their familiarity
with the cruise destination (whether they are locals or foreigners-only on a cruise vacation).

Furthermore, the cruise industry is dominated by three major international corporations under
which global cruise lines are regulated and managed. The corporations include Norwegian
Cruise Line Holdings Ltd, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd and Carnival Corporation & plc
(Cruise Market Watch. 2016). The cruise industry dominance by the three major corporations
is considered as of oligopolistic characteristics. As the cruise industry is restricted to only these
three corporations, it is easy for the cruise lines to exert power and control over ports across
the world (Cerveny, 2007). They can compare and standardise their products, travelling costs,
and nature of competition, thus ensuring delivery of quality services that outcompete other
travelling industries (Vogel, 2011). The global competition has included various travel

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industries such as all-inclusive resorts, airlines, theme-parks like Disneyland, and land-based
hotels. The competition between the cruise industry and the land-based tourism sectors has
significantly increased within the current global market thus necessitating cruise lines to
implement vertical strategies of integration into the excursion, tour operations, transportation,
and lodging corporations (Chin, 2008). The tourism land-based side also imposes considerable
competition within the global market. Its destination ports are competing to be the most
preferred homeports and cruise itineraries (the most preferred destination- beginning and end
of cruise lines) (Brida, Pulina, Riaño, & Zapata-Aguirre, 2012).

The cruise industry has displayed a remarkable growth when compared to other tourism and
travel industries. Between 1985-2018, the sector recorded an average annual growth of 13.9%,
a worldwide passenger increase from 1.8 million to 14.47 million (Akehurst, 2018). During
that period, global arrival of tourists in the travel industry increased from 285.9 million
passengers to 327.2 million passengers (Perucic, 2007). Indeed, previous research shows that
cruise tourism remains the fastest growing leisure tourism segment globally, Figure 1 shows
that the global cruise tourism passengers have been growing at the rate of 7.2% yearly, since
1990 (Akehurst, 2018; Dowling & Weeden, 2017). According to Papathanassis (2017), by
2014, there was a continuous increase in the number of passengers and an annual entrance of
eighteen new ships in the global market. Papathanassis (2017) forecasted an additional eighty-
four new ships to be delivered between 2015 – 2022. The passenger population increase has
significantly and steadily ensured that the vast and comparatively untapped global markets
have secured sustained growth of the cruise industry. The emerging global markets have
facilitated the operations of cruise lines to respond to the North American demand fluctuations
by relocating to areas such as Africa, Asia, South America, Pacific, and Australia.

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Figure 1. Global Cruise Tourism Passengers, 1989 to 2018

(Source: Akehurst, 2018)

The Cruise lines have been segmented into longer cruises and shorter cruises depending on
their segment lengths. The segmentation of cruise lines has changed the passenger
characteristics depending on the preference for cruise segment length. Shorter cruises with a
segment length of between 2 – 5 days or 6 – 8 days are comprised of younger passengers with
less education, more modest incomes, working full-time, new to cruising and are more
interested in the mass-market destination such as the Caribbean. The longer cruises of over
eight days are constituted by older passengers with higher incomes, who are more educated,
semi-retired or retired, have experience in cruising and are more interested in more exotic
destinations such as South America (Jones, 2011).

Due to the drastic growth displayed within the cruise industry, the paper subsequently examines
cruise tourism to confirm the nature of tourism within the industry. A broader explanation of
the cruise tourism topic provides both the reader and potential tourists with adequate access to
the necessary information about the unique characteristics of cruise tourism. Therefore, the
chapter subsequently addresses cruise tourism to provide a more detailed overview of the cruise
industry.

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 2.2 Cruise Tourism

According to Papathanassis & Beckmann (2011, p. 166) cruise tourism is a "...socio-economic

system generated by the interaction between human, organisational, and geographical entities,
aimed at producing maritime-transportation-enabled leisure experiences". The definition
depicts cruise tourism as a multi-disciplinary field in nature. There are various unique
characteristics of cruise tourism linked to the ships and the act of cruising, which makes it
different from other methods of tourism and travelling (Teye & Paris, 2011). These unique
characteristics present various challenges for the researcher, cruise destinations, cruise
passengers, and cruise lines.

Firstly, cruise ships combine different tourism elements from all tourism sectors (Brida &
Zapata, 2010). The modern and advanced cruise ships are both considered as the means of
transport during cruising and also form part of the cruise destination. The ships can be
considered as the sole or primary cruise destination. Therefore, modern and advanced cruise
ships have their pulling factors which compete with the cruise destination on a cruise itinerary.
The possible competition between cruise destinations or ports of call can significantly influence
the activity decision-making processes of the cruise passengers (Huijbens, 2015). It can
influence the passengers' financial expenditure and time spent while onshore after docking. For
example, when tourism elements in the modern cruise ships outcompete the land-based tourism
amenities, passengers may decide to spend little or no money and time while at the port of
destination, but more money and time onboard (Weaver, 2005a).

Secondly, cruise passengers are often enticed by the low, all-inclusive cruise ticket prices
implemented by cruise lines which hardly cover the costs of cruising. The cruise line generates
profits from their onboard amenities like shops, bars, advanced restaurants, casinos, and shore
excursion sales (Klein, 2011). The onboard amenities equally compete for the passenger money
along with the port destinations. The cruise lines have resorted to private islands as their ports
of call so that they can ultimately outcompete the port destinations and bypass the traditional
destinations, this reducing local economic benefits, employment, and onshore spending
(Wilkinson, 1999).

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Typically, cruise vacations have several port destinations when they stop for a brief time.
Henthorne (2000) found that short stoppage time at the ports by cruise lines have a significant
impact on the cruise passenger behaviours and decision-making processes such as visitation
patterns and spending limits. Henthorne (2000) reported a positive relationship between the
cruise passenger's spending limit and the amount of time spent at that specific destination port.
In contrast to this finding, Wilkinson (1999) reported that in the Bahamas, cruise passengers
spent less money during the day than at night. Conflicting with Wilkinson’s (1999) and
Henthorne’s (2000) findings, Dwyer & Forsyth (1998) identified that in Australia, cruise
passengers spent more money during the day than at night. While comparing home ports or
final destination and the ports of call, considering time and money spent, Teye & Paris (2011)
reported that in Miami (homeport) there was more expenditure than in the call ports of the
Caribbean. In contrast, Brida et al. (2012) identified that in Colombia, Cartagena de Indias, the
spending is more when the port acted as a port of call than when it was a home port. These
studies showed that several cruise tourists often extend their journey by spending more time at
the homeports (after or before cruising).

As illustrated above, visitation patterns are significantly influenced by the limited time cruise
passengers spend onshore. Jaakson (2004) reported that cruise passengers (not on a
directed/guided tour) who were walking off their cruise ship, in the ports of Zihuatanejo would
restrict themselves to touring core areas. These core tourist areas would include areas with
concentrated tourist-related retail outlets and shops, a clear transition of mixed non-tourist and
tourism-related establishments and the core-periphery. Others would tour regions far from the
core-periphery although having a stackable local focus. Limited penetration by tourists was
observed in less advanced and developed ports. Similarly, Teye & Paris (2011) reported that
cruise passengers often remained closer to their cruise ship in ports that were less developed.
However, in highly developed ports, they would travel further away from their cruise ship.

As indicated by Andriotis and Agiomirgianakis (2010), participants conveyed that the limited
time at the onshore port consequently limited them from experiencing all their desired activities.
Therefore, short-time exposure of cruise passengers to destinations as well as the possibility of
not getting off the cruise ship has a significant influence on the cruise traveller’s activity
decision-making processes.

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The unique characteristics of cruise tourism limit the cruise passengers' freedoms from
experiencing cruise destination attributes. Therefore, it is essential to understand the meaning
of ‘destination’, with respect to tourist destination. Understanding destination tourism and
cruise destination enables service providers to acquire essential marketing techniques such as
social media marketing and content marketing that is far-reaching to the passengers.
Consequently, through these examinations, cruise passengers acquire an adequate platform to
obtain necessary information about their destinations through the marketing channels as
discussed in the subsequent section of defining a tourist destination.

2.3 Defining a Tourist Destination

When addressing cruise tourism and factors influencing cruise tourists' decision-making
processes, it is essential to understand what a destination is. According to Hornby et al. (1974),
destination is “the place to which a person or thing travels or is sent” or “noting an attraction
or event that people are willing to travel a long distance to get to, either because it is very good
or distinctive or because it is located in a popular and interesting place.” Tourist destinations
across the world engage in intense competition to maintain their attractiveness and
competitiveness. Destination authorities address the various needs of different market
segments to gain a competitive advantage in the highly volatile tourism market. Such initiatives
include promoting the image of the destination and managing it in a manner that attracts tourists.
It is essential for destination authorities to efficiently implement destination marketing (Buhalis
& Michopoulou, 2011). Destination marketing involves the promotion of tourist destinations
to improve their imagery and popularity (Buhalis & Michopoulou, 2011).

On the other hand, Koutoulas and Zoyganeli (2007) have mentioned two levels of destination
marketing and this theory has been expanded by Zavattaro and Fay (2019). According to
Zavattaro & Fay (2019), the first is the micro-level where independent tour operators tend to
promote their tourism products and services offerings. The second is the macro-level, in which
governments and other relevant authorities take part in developing the regions they represent

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as tourist destinations, the formulating policies that favour tourism as well as infrastructural
development.

Moreover, destination marketing mainly involves the management of destination, which refers
to the efforts targeted at promoting sustainable tourism in the best interest of all stakeholders
(Pike and Page 2014). In support of this description, the efficiency of destination marketing
depends highly on the organisation of cultural events by the authorities responsible for
destination management (Alzua-Sorzabal, Zurutuza, Rebón, & Gerrikagoitia, 2015).

A business perspective of destination marketing involves activities and processes that link
sellers and buyers of tourism products (Zehrer & Hallmann, 2015). In this sense, the focus of
destination marketing is on competitive positioning and response to the demands of consumers.
It also means that destination marketing is a set of coordinated activities whose objective is to
distribute tourism products to potential markets by focusing on market segmentation and
branding (Prebensen, Chen, & Uysal, 2018). The modern-day tourist seeks new experiences in
terms of different cultures, the lifestyle of the host community and the authenticity of
destinations (Prebensen et al., 2018). Similarly, other research points to the new and increasing
challenges that face the tourism industry in the current age as the ones that drive destination
marketing, which is caused by tourist behaviour and changes in environmental conditions
(Gartner, 2014). This means that new trends in tourism marketing must be factored in when
marketing the destination.

After expounding on the meaning and overview of destination and destination marketing, the
section proceeds to discuss destination tourism, destination tourism marketing and cruise
destination marketing. The subsequent section is aimed at expanding on the aspects of
destination marketing that affect cruise tourists' decision-making.

2.3.1 Destination Tourism

Destination tourism can be defined in numerous ways. For instance, it can be used to refer to
places, which can be a city, country, region, or state where tourists visit and stay (IGI Global,
2019). In this case, these places possess tourism-related products and attractions. Many factors

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affect the attractiveness of a destination including support services, people-related factors, and
tourist attractions that form part of the destination (Vengesayi, Mavondo, & Reisinger, 2009).
Furthermore, each destination forms a particular image for tourists. For example, people who
have already visited Alabama consider beaches as the positive image of the destination whereas
those who have never gone to the place have no image at all (Hahm & Severt, 2018). It means
that advertisements tend to focus on branding destinations in a manner that creates a particular
image for non-visitors so that they can also develop a visitation interest. Perceptibly, effective
destination tourism marketing is also beneficial to the cruise industry as indicated by the impact
of a tourist destination on the number of people who cruise.

Tourist destinations are places that construct a blend of tourism products or services, that are
utilized under the destinations’ brand name (Papadimitriou, Apostolopoulou, & Kaplanidou,
2015), such as services in a nice holiday resort, retail travel agencies, accommodation, and tour
operations, among others. On the other hand, there is a geographical definition of tourism
destinations as areas understood by the tourists as unique and that they visit for their core
provisions (Voigt & Pforr, 2013). Here, the term provisions refer to attractions, accessibility,
package activities, and other tourism services. Chen and Phou (2013) also offer a meaning of
tourism destination that relates to Voigt and Pforr's (2013) definition. Tourism destinations are
"amalgams of touristic products and services, and they are perceived as complex systems which
are difficult to manage" (Boes, Buhalis, & Inversini, 2015, p. 393). A destination is a unique
place which allows tourists to spend their time and exhibit attractions, support services, and
resources (Chen & Phou, 2013).

Furthermore, they consider tourism destinations to have defined management systems, physical
boundaries, and well-known imagery. Nearly 70% of tourists across the world visit ten major
tourist destinations, such as France, Singapore, Bangkok, UK, and the US, while the remaining
30% share the other destinations (Gössling et al., 2012). The above authors note that the issue
is an indication of the intense competition among lesser-known destinations. Although cruise
passengers are on board most of the time, the destination ports are likely to be the primary
selling points that attract cruise passengers.

The competitiveness of a tourist destination has become an instrumental phenomenon in

contemporary society (Goodrich, 1977; Heath & Wall, 1992), particularly to the aspiring

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tourists in reference to the ecology, climate, culture, traditional architecture, and various
initiatives put in place to improve the sites, including entertainment, hotels, and catering among
other facilities (Kozak & Rimmington, 1999). The personal opinions and perceptions of tourists
often tilt in favour of their preferred destination, particularly as they gain experience of multiple
tourist destinations (Gössling et al., 2012). Tourists make decisions regarding their potential
destinations based on their experience of the different attractions, facilities, and service
standards (Laws, 1995). Similarly, the cruise managers can prioritise the attractiveness of their
tourist destination in their decision-making process to attract potential passengers and retain
returning clients.

Therefore, destination tourism marketing is essential for both tourists and cruise managers. It
enables them to make accurate decisions regarding their potential destinations based on
previous experiences of the different attractions, facilities, and service standards. The service
providers are also able to prioritise the attractiveness of their final products and services to
attract potential passengers and retain returning clients. Thus, the section proceeds to
destination tourism marketing.

2.3.2 Destination Tourism Marketing

Destination tourism marketing is a highly complex process as it involves numerous

stakeholders who are mostly interdependent in decision-making. Some of the most significant
stakeholders are local governments and the cruise industry (Goodall & Ashworth, 2013).
Furthermore, many factors influence the marketability of a destination, for example, security
and political instability (Artigas et al., 2017). Various academic literature has attempted to
discuss the critical determinant of destination marketing. In an investigation of the factors
responsible for the success of destination tourism (Buhalis, 2001), the authors distributed
questionnaires to 100 tourists who chose Greece as their favourite destination. The results of
the research indicated that the efficiency of destination tourism marketing depends on four
factors (Buhalis, 2001). These are satisfaction with the cost of travel, the tourism product, the
attributes of the tourism product, and the management of the tourism product.

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Furthermore, these factors were also found to be dependent on several attributes. For instance,
the perception of the tourism product is shaped by the level of satisfaction tourists have with
features like the sea, mountains, the sun, beaches, hotels, and restaurants within the destination
(Sultana & Khan, 2018). On the other hand, tourism product management can be measured by
the attractiveness of the destination, the amenities, and accessibility of the destination. These
factors are likely to influence the choice of activities at the destination port when known to the
tourists (Artigas et al., 2017).

A crucial aspect of destination tourism marketing is the ability and effectiveness of the
management to portray their facility, including a cruise facility as the most successful.
According to Cracolici and Nijkamp (2008), the effectiveness and efficiency with which a firm
manages its inputs are instrumental in creating a ‘tourist-preferred' destination as compared to
the competitors in the industry. Notably, the sound management of human and natural
resources is the basis upon which facilities such as cruise ships can gain competitive advantage
and attract more tourists (Cracolici & Nijkamp, 2008). On the contrary, critics of the above
school of thought present a contemporary version of the analysis of the competitiveness of
tourist destinations (Chon, Weaver, & Kim, 1991; Gallarza, Saura, & Garcia, 2002). According
to the authors mentioned above, such analysis is not limited to the confines of the tourist aspects
of territorial regions but must encompass a broader set of factors that include the tourists'
perception on destination and its competitiveness (Dann, 1996; Enright & Newton, 2004).

There are three strategic directions capable of enhancing the efficiency of destination tourism
marketing (Pizam et al., 1999). First, the authorities in charge of destination management need
to ensure that tourists are satisfied and delighted. They also need to strengthen the
competitiveness and profitability of the destination in the long-term. Lastly, they need to
develop sustainable destinations that guarantee the prosperity of the host population. Pizam et
al. (1999) further add that each of the three directions is tied to many other strategic objectives.

Alternatively, the most critical objective in destination tourism marketing is to enhance the
satisfaction of visitors (Kim & Jun 2016). In this regard, destination managers and tourism
enterprises need to improve the services offered and specialise in tourism products that pay
attention to customer value for money. To oversee the improvement of the services provided
in destinations, there is a need to adopt a combination of initiatives. These include the provision

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of flexible tourism services, adoption of quality control mechanisms, enhancement of
management procedures, and development of personal relationships with tourists (Kim & Jun
2016). Besides, investing in the training of personnel and collaborating with cruise companies
who have a more considerable influence on tourists' activities decision-making is also a critical
factor.

Tourism occupies a unique position in influencing the policy formation process in many
countries, considering that destination tourism is associated with social, economic and
environmental concerns for the local people (Welten, 2015). Tourist destinations, therefore,
tend to compete for tourists resulting in a sharp competitive struggle (Bauman, 2017). In this
sense, Boksberger and von Bartenwerffer (2003) mention that the main objective of the tourism
industry stakeholders when engaging in destination tourism marketing initiatives is to enhance
the competitiveness of their destinations. The tourism industry is the most substantial economic
player in most countries (Boksberger & von Bartenwerffer, 2003). As a result, it plays it a
critical part of the development of any region. The marketing process should be guided by
competitiveness to ensure that destination tourism is profitable both in the short and long term
(Komppula, 2014). In this regard, competitiveness is seen to be the most critical factor in
determining the success of any industry. He emphasises this notion with the argument that a
tourist destination is competitive when it experiences a growing number of visitors that
translate into financial returns. Unlike the majority of literature on destination tourism
marketing which associate competitiveness with high visitor numbers, stakeholders need to
have a multifaceted view of the industry by involving local communities in all initiatives that
seek to make the destinations attractive and competitive (Morrison, 2013). This research study
focuses more on factors affecting cruise tourists' final decision-making process on their
ultimate alternative destination; thus, the next section expounds on cruise destination marketing.

2.3.3 Cruise Destination Marketing

The fulfilment of a cruise vacation requires a joint effort of the cruise ships and the port
destinations where the cruise ships request berths to allow visitors engage in various activities
(Wang, Wang, Zhen, & Qu, 2016). This means that selecting the activities for tourists at the

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destination is not a single decision made by cruise ships or tourists. Instead, it requires
negotiation efforts that include destination marketers. Cruise ships have become a major player
in the tourism industry, especially because they combine all industry sectors from
transportation to accommodation and tour operators (Brida & Zapata, 2010). Since 2009 the
global cruise tourism has grown by an average of 4.84% per annum, with a potential for
continued growth (Whyte, Packer, & Ballantyne, 2018). Therefore, it is essential that local
people around the cruise tourists' destinations ports develop strong relationships with cruise
ship companies by sharing and increasing their experience and culture. While the cruise
industry settles on the appropriate destination, destination managers and authorities should
facilitate access and a welcoming environment for tourists (Jones, 2011). On the other hand,
cruise managers establish strong relationships with the stakeholders who take part in
destination marketing to influence tourist decisions. The following section will explore
consumer behaviour in tourism with a particular focus on the model and factors that shape these
behaviours.

Contrary to the traditional cruising industry, the contemporary leisure cruising sector has
undergone commendable transformation to become a valuable industry and preferred tourist
destination hub (Brida & Zapata-Aguirre, 2009). In the early 1970s, the industry was
characterised by a small passenger port service, and such luxurious facilities and services as
shore excursions, port lecturers, casinos, and spa services were missing. Importantly, the cruise
tourism industry has evolved and currently represents over US$ 20 billion in global investments
(Brida & Zapata-Aguirre, 2009). The author mentioned above avers that cruise tourism has
become economically beneficial to the global tourism sector and is the travel industry's fastest-
growing sector in the last two decades. As the industry continues to grow, so does the
competition among players, an issue attributed to the scramble for tourists attracted by the
luxurious lifestyle on the ocean. In doing so, stakeholders in the cruise tourism industry,
particularly the management of various firms, have to adopt sound and practical strategies to
gain a competitive edge against their potential business rivals.

After defining the destination, presenting an overview of what destination marketing entails
and comprehensively discussing destination tourism, destination tourism marketing, and cruise
destination marketing in a bid to expand on the aspects of destination marketing that affect

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cruise tourists' decision-making, the chapter further discusses cruise tourists' decision-making
processes in the subsequent section.

2.4 Cruise Tourists’ Decision-Making

The choice of destination activities is dependent on information from different sources.

Travellers who seek adventure look for a lot of information on a rare basis (Smallman et al.,
2012). On the other hand, those who are afraid of taking risk gather information and tend to
favour particular activities over others. The extent of the information search depends on the
desires of the consumer regarding the destination or the stage of the travelling itself. An
empirical study on the way people perceive landscapes established that a favourable aesthetic
judgment results in aesthetic or environmental preference (Hung & Petrick, 2012). For instance,
tourists prefer visiting areas with natural environments to urban environments because they are
perceived as more beautiful. Aesthetic judgment is subjective and thus could vary among
individuals (Hung & Petrick, 2012). For instance, some people may consider the physical
attributes of relief to lack of predictive properties that may result in aesthetic judgment while
others may use properties in determining their aesthetic preference and therefore favour
sightseeing activities. Additionally, tourists assigned high beauty scores to the roughness of the
landscape and the presence of water (Hung & Petrick, 2012).

Tourists' decision-making and behaviour towards the daily activities at the destination port
depend greatly on the attractiveness of the destination. This is a reflection of the feelings that
tourists have regarding these activities and their ability to meet their needs (Juan & Chen,
2012). This means that activities that have a higher potential of meeting tourists' needs will be
given more attention during the decision-making process. The possibility of tourists
considering a particular activity on the day they arrive at the port depends on how much they
consider it to meet their needs and this further depends on the attributes and components of the
activity (Juan & Chen, 2012). Therefore, Juan and Chen (2012) consider the attractiveness of
a destination to be the main determinant of the available activities and hence a reason for
tourists to consider spending time at the particular destination. Consequently, activities that
present few opportunities for tourists' satisfaction will not attract, and therefore may not be part

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of the tourists' set of options. This section will focus on behaviours that are specific to cruise
tourists that affect the decision they make while off-board the cruise ship.

The complexity of decision-making processes encompasses the aspect of narrowing down

alternatives to the most favourable alternative of high ratings. Therefore, to address these
processes, the section is subdivided into three subsections, including a vacation tourist
behaviour model, a comprehensive model of tourists’ decision-making and a consumer
information processing model. These subsections are consecutively addressed, starting with
vacation tourist behaviour model.

2.4.1 Vacation Tourist Behaviour Model

Models aligned to the classical buyer behaviour concept assume that decisions follow the
sequence starting with attitude then intention and final behaviour. This rationale of decision-
making underpins the majority of research in tourism. A model entails a framework that helps
analyse and predict the functioning of a system under specified conditions (Cai et al., 2004).
According to Decrop (2006, p.35), the vacation tourist behaviour model is, "the most
encompassing process model so far [...] a comprehensive overview of all major variables that
intervene in the tourist decision-making process." Below is a descriptive figure for decision-
making processes that are involved in the vacation tourist behaviour model.

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Figure 2. Vacation Tourist Behaviour Model

(Moutinho, 1987 p. 40)

The model is divided into the pre-decision and decision process and post-purchase evaluation
parts. The pre-decision and decision processes part is described as a "flow of events ranging
from the travel stimuli to the purchase decision" (Moutinho, 1987, p.39). The pre-decision and
decision part have a preference structure, decision, and purchase fields.

The preference structure towards final cruise destinations is linked with factors such as
internalised environmental aspects like cultural values, social class, status, reference groups,
and cultural norms. Additionally, these factors include individual determinants like a perceived
set of roles, lifestyle, motives, personality as well as attitudes and family. When there is
adequate additional information, preference structures tend to change over a given period, thus

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can consequently alter the factors above. According to Moutinho (1987, p.39), the "confidence
generation" significantly influences the intentions of a consumer to purchase a product or
service. Nevertheless, sentiments like anxiety, uncertainty, and caution may act as decision
inhibitors, thus causing consumers to respond or react differently than was displayed by their
attitudes towards the cruise destination.

According to Moutinho (1987, p.42), the decision filed leads to “a psychological predisposition
in terms of intention toward the buying act”, while the purchase part is, “the act of buying a
vacation destination [...] the outcome of psychic processes” (Moutinho 1987, p.42). Therefore,
while referring to the works of Olshavsky & Granbois (1981), Moutinho (1987) concluded that
purchase diversity happens due to driven lifestyles of diverse cultures, necessity, imitation,
conformity to various group norms and inter-related purchases.

However, Sirakaya and Woodside (2005) postulate that the vacation tourist behaviour model
is imperatively complex with operationalisation issue signals, thus lacks a specific research
hypothesis and the empirical research tests are often complicated. Additionally, the model does
not have a precise emphasis on destination choice processes (Sirakaya & Woodside, 2005).
The model displays an uncertain relationship between the other variables and travel stimuli.
The premises of the model are also unclear in cases such as destination choices and new cruise
tourism decisions. The model overrides to post-purchase evaluation/information directly from
purchase when in tourism products and services, purchase does not denote the actual
consumption.

Therefore, this model can apply to any tourism industry, since it has no precision and accuracy
of the decision-making processes. The model is too broad for this research study since the study
is only focused on a few variables that address tourists' final decision on destination. There is
a need to develop a different concept or model to confirm if it is applicable to the study; hence,
the chapter proceeds to a comprehensive model for tourists' decision-making.

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 2.4.2 Comprehensive Model for Tourist Decision-Making

To identify and indicate an applicable model that is applicable to this study, it is imperative
first to address the basic decision-making process model. In the basic decision-making model,
the processes involve making final choices through the identification of a decision, collection
and gathering the available information and precisely assessing the alternative resolutions to
settle on the final one with the highest rating. Using the basic step-by-step process of decision-
making, an individual is able to select the most deliberate and thoughtful decisions through the
definition of all available alternatives and the organisation of relevant information. Thus, it
increases an individual's chances of settling on the most satisfying alternative with the highest
scores. The process of making decisions in the basic decision-making model undergoes seven
steps, as shown in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3. Decision-Making Process In 7 Steps

(Source: Negulescu, 2014)

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In step 1, an individual realises the need for decision-making, then clearly defines the nature
of the available decision that must be made. The individual then collects pertinent information
(both external and internal information) from the best sources and through efficient means
(Negulescu, 2014). Thirdly, alternatives are identified since, during the process of information
collection, various alternatives and paths are realised. In step 4, all the available alternatives or
paths are evaluated to isolate the most self-satisfying alternative that offers a reliable and valid
solution to the identified need for decision-making in step 1. In this step, one will start to prefer
specific alternatives with the highest potential of attaining the objective. The alternatives are
then arranged in their order of priority, based on the individual's value system (Negulescu,
2014). In step 5, after weighing and arranging the available alternatives based on their priority
and individual's value system, the alternative with the highest score is selected (it can be a
single alternative or combination of two or more alternatives). In step 6, the action is taken by
implementing the chosen choice (s), then in step 7 the decision is implemented and its
consequences or outcomes are reviewed to identify if the need arousal in step 1 is resolved.

Negulescu (2014) indicated that the process of making decisions is continuous with the
literature offering novel contributions to decision-making processes (Figure 3. Decision-
making in 7 steps). According to the information provided by Negulescu (2014), decision-
making processes entail the existence of decision problems that have been understood and
appropriately defined to establish opportunities for solutions. Besides, the simple models of the
decision-making process encompass the steps that are followed to guide the individuals in
making a decision (Cornescu., Marinescu., Curteanu., & Toma, 2004). The steps within stages
of the decision-making process indicate slight differences depending on the approach of the
author. However, among the commonly used strategies, there are models with 3,4,5 or 7 stages.
While all the models are used by people to make decisions, this study will focus on the seven-
step model. Besides, all the models indicate identifying the issue or problem as the first stage.
Negulescu (2014) recounted that the decision-making process could be captured in 3 phases,
including defining, identifying, and development with seven steps. Litherland (2013) indicated
that the decision-making steps encompass the definition of the problem or issue, identification
and limitation of the factors, development of suitable solutions, analysis of the alternatives,
selection of the appropriate choice, implementation of the decision, and establishment of the
control and assessment system.

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Additionally, the process of making decisions to establish whether one decides to travel has
been at the centre of discussion in tourism studies. Contextually, by having an understanding
regarding how tourists make travel decisions, service providers may have suitable strategies to
market and provide satisfactory services (Petrick, Li., & Park, 2007). Nicosia (1966) alluded
that decision-making processes encompass the aspect of narrowing down on alternatives to
come up with purchase intentions of services and goods. Previous research on decision-making
processes indicated that factors such as tourist families with travel destinations, marital roles,
travel frequency, children, spouse, friends and relatives, culture, lifecycle, group processes,
advertising, and local experts affect these processes (Gursoy & McCleary, 2004; Mottiar &
Quinn, 2004; Wang, Hsieh, Yeh, & Tsai, 2004; Caneen, 2003; Crompton & Kim, 2001; Decrop,
2005; Rompf, DiPietro, & Ricci, 2005). While different researchers have conceptualised varied
frameworks that seek to understand the tourists' decision-making processes, few pieces of
research have focused on their examination. Through examining the processes tourists use in
making decisions, tourism practitioners could harness the potential to arrive at better decisions
to market both to the future and current visitors. As such, it is noteworthy to explain the tourist
decision-making model so that service providers can have the upper hand in providing services.

The model of complex decision-making is presented in Figure 4 is introduced by Henry Assael

(1992). In this model, consumers critically and comprehensively evaluate brands of the
products or services before a purchase. Unlike other decision-making models, the complex
decision-making model sought more information accompanied by more brand evaluation. A
complex decision-making model applies to product categories that are either high-priced or
have close performance risk association. It is also applicable to complex products, products
with speciality, and those associated with an individual's ego (Assael, 1992). The model
involves five distinct phases during the decision-making process. These include problem
recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, choice, and choice outcomes. In
complex decision-making involving consumers, the five phases are translated into need arousal,
consumer information processing, brand evaluation, purchase, and purchase evaluation as
represented in Figure 4.

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Figure 4. A Basic Model Of Complex Decision-Making

Source: (Assael, 1992, p36)

Need Arousal
At the beginning of the complex decision-making process, consumers have distinct sets of
attitudes and perceptions of specific products. Need arousal occurs depending on the current
consumer needs and wants that should result in a satisfied-purchase situation (Assael, 1992).
Therefore, in situations of limited information, a consumer makes purchase decisions based on,
his or her perception, belief, or attitude towards the product against all the odds. These
perceptions may be based on a friend's opinion or individual perception based on price,
reliability, or experience.

Consumer Information Processing

After need arousal, consumers gather adequate information concerning the products or services.
In cruise tourism, tourists collect various information, then investigate multiple alternatives to
create awareness on the product or service and examine the Consumer Report issues to
establish how brand alternatives are explored through the impartial agency. Using the collected
information, consumers process the available brand information on the product or service
depending on prices, convenience, reliability, and other characteristic aspects. Through
consumer information processing, the consumer can make an activity decision based on the
alternative, which has the highest perceived rating.

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Brand Evaluation
When the consumer processes the available brand information on the product or service, brand
evaluation takes place concurrently. On the occasion when a consumer is impressed by various
alternatives, complex decision-making processes are triggered. Brand selection is initiated, and
the consumer decision-making process is based on the alternative, which has the highest
perceived rating.

Purchase
Purchase decision-making is triggered by driven lifestyles of diverse cultures, necessity,
imitation, conformity to various group norms, and inter-related purchases.

Post-purchase evaluation
After purchase, brand performance is evaluated by the consumers depending on adequacy
evaluation, and satisfaction or dissatisfaction as the major aspects. Satisfaction reinforces
judgments of consumers, thus initiates positive feedback, increased repurchase probabilities
and future decision-making. These aspects present high probability levels of repeat buying, in
a field form, for a particular tourist service or destination repurchase. However, dissatisfaction
due to poor performance necessitates a re-evaluation of previous consumer purchase decisions,
poor consumer judgments, thus initiating negative feedback, and reduced repurchase
probabilities (Assael, 1992). Irrespective of the performance outcome, post-purchase
evaluation is considered a process of learning, which offers feedback for other potential
consumers and future information references.

A comprehensive model of tourists’ decision-making does not represent the entirety of the
complexities of the decision-making processes. It merely reflects the integration of numerous
activities and the dynamic nature of how tourists utilise information to arrive at various types
of purchase decisions. Travel decisions mark the beginning of tourism activities; both internal
and external factors also influence the decision-making behaviour of tourists, and the
surrounding environment contributes to their action. Several factors influence the travel
decisions of tourists; the process is affected by such factors as their psychological expectations,
the purpose and motivation of their tourism, the nature of the tourist destination, and the
features of different tourism activities. Such factors also determine whether or not the decision-

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making process regarding the travel and tourism destination turns out to be successful. Notably,
a review of research on tourists' behaviour can help in establishing the decision-making
approach of tourists, and the importance of tourist behaviour in the success of the process.

As depicted by the models of decision-making processes, before anyone makes any decision,
there must be need arousal. The need to make decision initiates the necessity for adequate and
relevant information. From the information collected, different alternatives or paths of action
are generated, thus all desirable and possible alternatives, necessary for decision-making are
obtained. Through these formulated alternatives, a tourist is able to select the final destination
activity based on its score rate in comparison to other available paths of actions. The described
process is termed as consumer information processing. Therefore, with the above-illustrated
need to gather information, the chapter subsequently explains the elements of consumer
information processing.

2.4.3 Consumer Information Processing

The information processing, or decision-making, or cognitive model regard consumers as

practical problem solvers thus explain the phenomenon of consumer behaviour through the
investigation of the mechanism of consumer information processing (Mowen 1988). Therefore,
more emphasis is placed on the manner through which consumers conduct information search,
storage, retrieval, evaluation, and application of this collected information during the process
of decision-making. Cognitivism distinguishes the persuasive and essential responsibilities
played by the social and environmental experiences and is not entirely supported by the
approaches of behaviourists. As for offering stimuli in the informational input forms for
additional input and processing towards decision-making (Stewart 1994). According to
Marsden & Littler (1998), the critical implication of an advanced marketing strategy of the
cognitive model is that consumer behaviours are significantly influenced by adequate
information exposure.

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Availability of adequate, valid and reliable information has a momentous impact on the tourists’
decision-making processes and behaviours. The validity and reliability of information are
consequently affected by their sources; thus, information sources are a key aspect in the process
of decision-making. Therefore, the next section extends its focus on information sources.

2.4.3.1 Focusing on Information Sources

Typically, consumers require adequate information about the existing variety of product
alternatives, wide-ranging information about the disadvantages and advantages associated with
purchasing particular services or products, comprehensive information on product prices,
specific brands, terms and conditions of sale, as well as general consumer market understanding
and functioning. The information search offers various alternatives for destination choice.
Decrop (2010) reported that choice sets are an essential tool used in analysing destination
choice. There is a typology of seven choice sets that are usually continuous, although they
undergo turnarounds, and the judgment on the final destination is made based on opportunities
and constraints (Decrop, 2010).

According to Crompton (1992), the model of "choice sets" decision-making processes for
tourists go through three choice sets of stages, where all of the destinations that consumers
know are evaluated until the final choice is determined. These stages include an initial
consideration choice set, "containing all destinations considered by tourists as "possible to visit
within a period" (Crompton, 1992, p. 423). The second stage is the late (evoked) consideration
set, which "contains destinations considered by tourists as probable to visit within a time"
(Crompton, 1992, p. 424). The final stage is the choice decision, the final chosen destination
that the tourists settle on visiting. Therefore, obtaining necessary information about choice sets
through an information search allows tourists to make a critical decision about destination
choices. For example, Crompton & Ankomah (1993) reported that at the first stage of choices,
the probability of the first selected alternative destinations being chosen and isolated as the
final choice of destination to visit is dependent on the awareness level of the tourist of the
destination. Thus, its evident how the information search is essential in the tourist decision-
making processes.

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During the research stage of the information search, particularly searching for external
information, various types of social media channels offer numerous and essential non-marketed
sources of information. These sources range from extensively in-depth channels such as blogs,
rating websites, and consumer review to limited sources such as microblogs. The sources can
either be obtained through direct product inspection or be obtained from "disinterested" third
parties who have no direct stake in the purchase decision-making outcome and seller-related
sources (Beales et al., 1981). These sources can be obtained from social media channels that
offer either synchronous or asynchronous social network access to a wider range of consumer
contacts. This is because their populations are high, compared to the traditional communication
channels. Consumers have a more comprehensive range of family members and friends across
social network channels, accessible based on 24/7/365. This flux social network member offers
a broader range of direct personal information and additional information sources. Content
communities and blogs offer quick access to specialised information sources to consumers
beyond their social media reach. Considering the constructs of information search, it is
important to note that social network channels offer an effective platform for bidirectional
communication flow (Beales et al., 1981). Not only do they offer consumers the opportunity
of being passive informative receivers, but also allow them the opportunity to direct requests
for distinct information which have a direct relation to their search needs and wants, enabling
them to search, exchange, and receive adequate information about their destinations.

During the information processing process in the stage of the external information search,
Blackwell et al. (2006) advocated for information stimuli acceptance. Similarly, Howard &
Sheth (1968) raised the concern of search sensitivity towards the information as well as
perceptual bias. Therefore, specific information acquired from distinct social media channels
can have higher acceptance levels in comparison to other information sources since the
information source conforms or favours the needs and wants of consumers.

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Figure 5. Information Sources for a Purchase Decision

(Source: Beales et al., 1981)

Figure 5 indicates the hierarchy of information sources. Information can either be acquired
through internal information sources or external information sources. Internal information
refers to those that are stored in the individual’s memory (Beales et al., 1981). The available
internal information in the memory is either actively acquired through past searches or through
personal experiences. Consumers who actively engage in external information searches can
store adequate information on product prices and particular brand characteristics in their
memories, and later retrieve these during the internal information search process. Also, an
individual may actively acquire information through personal experiences during product or
service use. Personal experience offers sufficient information on products or services that are
frequently purchased, safety risks, and health effects. The acquired information through
repeated product purchase and expertise is often reliable, thus offers sufficient information
necessary for maintaining market competitiveness. On one hand, information is passively
acquired through daily routines of a consumer through commercial advertisement channels
such as billboards, televisions, social media or through the personal experience of close friends
or families (Beales et al., 1981). However, external information is actively acquired through

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learning processes from seller or marketer, personal conflicts, independent groups and
experiments.

According to Menon et al. (2015), the main objective of a marketer is to ensure that when
consumers recognise their need arousals, the information stored within their memory,
individual differences and environmental influences should generate sufficient discrepancy
awareness between the ideal and actual states. On the occasion that the consumers refer to the
information stored in the memory during an internal search only to realise that the choice
criteria, preference and alternative knowledge are inadequate, they often turn to search for
marketer information (Menon et al., 2015). The marketers have mastered the art of tailoring
their information so that it gives significant experience to tourists so that marketer can
efficiently market their products and services. Due to the importance of information tailored
by the marketer about their products and services, the chapter proceeds to marketer information.

Marketer Information

It is also essential to focus on marketer information which has been the subject of study for a
long time, with researchers showing interest in understanding how tourists search for and use
information (Luo, Zhang, & Duan, 2013). Consequently, marketers have mastered the art of
tailoring their information so that it gives crucial knowledge to tourists.

Marketers use such information for destination marketing. This is a management process that
tourist organisations and enterprises use to identify their actual and potential selected tourists
and then communicate with them to ascertain and influence their decision and wishes,
motivations, needs, and likes and dislikes (Scott, Zhang, Le, & Moyle, 2019). It is important
as it is a way of convincing tourists to purchase certain products and services. Also, it helps
increase sales volumes by marketing tourism to tourists, as well as influencing the tourists’
decision-making process.

The marketers' information also involves branding of a tourism destination. This consists of
developing a clear identity or brand, based on reality, and also reflecting on the characteristics
and strengths of the destination. This is purposely done to establish a memorable and distinctive

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identity in the marketplace by representing a source of value to the tourists (Yuan, Gretzel, &
Tseng, 2015). Marketers include such information and make it available for tourists to searches
as it is considered one of the most effective weapons for marketing. It helps destinations to
remain tourists' preferred destinations as they give out their information to the public. Therefore,
this shows that the marketer's information contains information on the destination. It is done to
market the destination to actual and potential tourists. With adequate, reliable and valid
information about marketer stimuli and the cruise tourists' decision-making processes,
examining the factors that incline the tourists to settle on their distinct alternatives is essential.
Now the chapter proceeds to factors affecting cruise tourist decision-making.

2.4.3.2 Factors Affecting Cruise Tourist Decision-making

Various factors are instrumental in influencing decision-making by tourists, especially in

choosing vacation destinations. The following table summarises some of the important factors,
including time, familiarity and expertise, weather, and price. As will be discussed extensively
under the various themes in the results and discussion sections, the four factors mentioned
above are important in this study as the researcher sought to explore the decision-making aspect
of tourist consumer behaviour. Familiarity and experience, for instance, influence tourists'
decision-making, especially those that have used a destination product and would want to
return for another visit (Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). The variability in weather and time
also impact on the decisions of tourists as most tourists have vacations during summer when
the temperatures are relatively high and holiday activities are at peak. Time is a barrier to the
ability of tourists to take a more realistic approach to decision-making (Weeden, Lester, &
Thyne, 2011). Changes in such weather and time conditions may influence the decisions of the
tourists to visit their preferred destinations.

The cost of a destination product is equally important as most consumers prefer competitive
prices while choosing to purchase a product from multiple alternatives. However, some tourists
prefer luxury and ignore such factors as pricing, especially when it comes to destination
products. The vacation tourist model helps the researcher in exploring these factors and how

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they influence the decision-making aspect of the tourism industry. Table 1 summarises other
researchers' contribution to identifying factors affecting tourists’ decision-making.

Table 1. Factors Affecting Decision-Making among Tourists from Previous Studies

Factors Year Authors Contribution

Assesses tourists’ experiences at a small
2016 Pearce and Wu
themed tourist attraction
Examines issues regarding the description,
Sirakaya, E., and
2005 understanding, and description of tourist
Time Woodside, A. G.
decision-making
Calls for the understanding of connections
Weeden, Lester, and
2011 between ships, their destinations and
Thyne
stakeholders for a sustainable future
Price had the most significant impact on
Chiam, M., Soutar, G., tourists’ preference of vacation destinations,
2009
and Yeo. A. compared to travel agent and airline
reputation and trustworthiness
Notes that cruise vacationers have become
Chua, B. L., Lee, S.,
Price 2015 more demanding of service quality, price, and
Goh, B., and Han, H.
value
Argues that trip price and duration were the
Juan, P. J., and Chen, two main influences on tourist decisions
2012
H. M. during the anticipation phase of planning their
trip
Climate and weather are important factors in
tourists’ decision-making and also influence
2010 Becken, S.
the successful operation of the tourism
business
Jacobsen, J. K. S., Shows an overall preference for clear sky,
Denstadli, J. M., unlike emphasis on temperature as the most
Weather 2011
Lohmann, M., & important tourism weather variable
Førland, E. J. 1
Recreationist thermal sensations differed
Lindner-Cendrowska, from other interviewees’ responses and were
2018
K., and Błażejczyk, K affected not only by physiological processes
and psychological factors
Vacation planning is a continuous process,
Decrop, A., and
2004 involving adaptability and opportunism, as
Snelders, D.
well as emotions in the choice of destinations
Familiarity Tourists’ own experience is highly crucial in
Jacobsen, J. K. S., &
and 2012 helping tourists make choices on destinations
Munar, A. M.
Expertise in cruise tourism
Advocates for the development of different
Xie, Kerstetter, and
2012 marketing strategies for cruisers and potential
Mattila
cruisers by the cruise industry

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Time
The classic concept of decision-making suggests that people must gather and analyse
information to choose the optimal solution among alternatives (Weeden, Lester, & Thyne,
2011). In this regard, the choice set theory is popular in explaining the choice of activities at
the destination port and therefore indicates that tourists are likely to settle for context-based
decisions when making decisions (Pearce & Wu, 2016). Time is a barrier to the ability of
tourists to take a more realistic approach to decision-making (Weeden, Lester, & Thyne, 2011).
In this regard, tourists make travel decisions that are perceived as satisfying instead of taking
time to seek optimal choices. This shows how much the pragmatic approach to decision-
making is context-dependent, especially when the tourists are on board the cruise ship. Time
is a limiting factor for cruise passengers when they have to decide on the activities they will
do. Visiting a port for a day in a foreign place may be quite different from spending a vacation
at a resort. Tourists have to operate with a real deadline keeping in mind that the ship may not
wait for them if they get lost touring the destination.

Moreover, visitation patterns are significantly influenced by the limited time cruise passengers
spend onshore. Jaakson (2004) reported that cruise passengers (not on a directed/guided tour)
who are walking off their cruise ship in the ports of Zihuatanejo would restrict themselves to
touring core areas. These core tourist areas would include areas with concentrated tourist-
related retail outlets and shops, a clear transition of mixed non-tourist and tourism-related
establishments and the core-periphery. Others would go beyond the core-periphery regions but
with a clear local focus. This type of limited penetration by the cruise passengers was observed
in ports that are less developed. Teye & Paris (2011) reported that cruise passengers often
remain closer to their cruise ship in ports that are less developed. However, in highly developed
ports, they would travel further away from their cruise ship.

As indicated by Andriotis and Agiomirgianakis (2010), participants conveyed that the limited
time at the onshore port consequently limited them from experiencing all their desired activities.
Therefore, short-time exposure of cruise passengers to destinations as well as the possibility of
not getting off the cruise ship has a significant influence on the cruise traveller's activity
decision-making processes. These unique cruise tourism characteristics limit the freedoms of
cruise passengers from experiencing a number of their activities as well as other attributes of

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the destination. Therefore, it is evident that the amount of time at the destinations significantly
influences the activity decision-making processes of cruise passengers.

Price
Another crucial factor that affects the process of tourists' decision-making is price. Tourism
products tend to be highly-priced and may generate insecurity for tourists' decision (Chua, Lee,
Goh, & Han, 2015). Considering the intangible nature of tourism, a tourist with no prior
experience with particular destination activities relies on advice from cruise tour guides to
make judgments and determine the quality of a product or service (Juan & Chen, 2012).
Therefore, the choice of particular activities at the destination with the highly influential price
factor makes price a fundamental attribute (Chua et al., 2015). Chiam et al. (2009) conducted
a study that depicted price as the most critical factor that influences the tourist's purchase
decision. In this regard, because passengers look for the cheapest options, they tend to book
tours among other activities on the day they arrive at the destination (Juan & Chen, 2012). This
means that saving money is a consideration for tourists. Cruise passengers travel as a group
and may consider booking less pricy expedition packages as opposed to customised costly ones.
Furthermore, cruise guides may recommend trusted companies offering the best packages of
activities.

Additionally, cruise passengers are often enticed by the low, all-inclusive cruise ticket prices
implemented by cruise lines which hardly cover the costs of cruising. The cruise line also
generates profits from their onboard amenities like shops, bars, advanced restaurants, casinos,
and shore excursions' sales (Klein, 2011). The onboard amenities compete equally for
passenger money as the port destinations. The cruise lines have resorted to private islands as
their call ports so that they can ultimately outcompete the port destinations and bypass the
traditional destinations, thus reducing local economic benefits, employment, and onshore
spending (Wilkinson, 1999). Therefore, the prices of these amenities both onshore and offshore,
influence the cruise passenger’s activity decision-making process.

Weather

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Weather is another factor that has a strong influence on destination activity decision-making
(De Cantis et al., 2016). Climate variability and change affect the choice of destination in many
ways (Lindner-Cendrowska & Błażejczyk, 2018). The phenomenon applies to all tourism
destinations, in that they experience a natural seasonality in demand. Inter-annual climate
variability may result in unseasonable cold, in heatwaves, storms or heavy rains, which in turn
have an impact on tourist comfort and safety.

On the other hand, some weather patterns produce products like snow cover and coral reefs
that attract tourists (Becken & Wilson, 2013). Changes in weather patterns also determine
various tourism operations within the destination like the cost of heating or cooling, water
supply, and evacuations and temporary closures. Climatic circumstances also act as an
attraction to specific activities. While some weather circumstances may obstruct tourists'
planned activities, the absence of certain weather conditions such as wind or snow may cause
tourists to cancel certain activities that are favoured by such weather (Becken & Wilson, 2013).
Therefore, weather forms part of the holiday experience as it influences tourist activities during
the holiday. Having looked at the factors that determine tourists' decision-making behaviour
regarding their daily activities on the day of arrival at the destination, the next section explores
the literature on tourist expectation and satisfaction based on their experiences at the destination
port.

Familiarity and Expertise

Tourist decision-making is determined by the two components of consumer knowledge:
familiarity and expertise (Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). Familiarity is used to refer to the
number of experiences the person has with the given product, while expertise refers to the
ability of the consumer to perform tasks relating to the product. Cruise tourists have different
levels of destination-related knowledge, which in turn makes them have different perceptions
of destination attributes. For instance, some tourists find it more comfortable to repeat the same
activities in the same destination repeatedly. After all, the aspect of familiarity makes them fall
in love with the activities at the destination. The familiarity may be therapeutic and a way of
reviving memories. Also, increased familiarity with particular activities increases the level of
expertise (Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). Novice consumers with limited experience of
destinations are less likely to understand the significance of particular tourist activities

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available at a specific destination. Therefore, experienced tourists will focus on relevant and
vital destination attributes and ignore the unimportant ones. For instance, some tourists tend to
be more aligned to intimate explorations and will plan for a private tour across the destination,
rather than relying on prearranged plans influenced by ship tour guides.

In conclusion, time, weather, familiarity, and expertise, as well as price at the cruise destination
play a critical role in influencing the decisions of tourists across various tourism disciplines,
including cruise tourism (Becken, 2010; Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). In most cases, cruise
passengers often make decisions on their intended destinations long before their planned travel
day as such arrangements are subject to changes, particularly regarding the factors above. For
instance, the difference in the price of a destination is one of the primary factors that affects
the decisions of tourists who intend to visit a facility (Chua, Lee, Goh, & Han, 2015). A notable
example is that passengers or tourists are always aware that cruise companies charge as much
as double the price of their service on booking upon arrival as opposed to prior booking. The
experience and knowledge of a destination, primarily based on familiarity as well as the
tourist’s expertise are also crucial in influencing the decision of an individual intending to visit
the destination. In doing so, the factors discussed here are instrumental in achieving the
objectives of this study. Notably, the study sought to establish the factors influencing the cruise
passengers decision-making endeavour, issues which have been discussed at length in this
section. By delving into the elements of time, price, expertise and familiarity, and weather, the
objectives are addressed. Therefore, after the evaluation of factors influencing the activity
decision-making processes of cruise passengers, the paper subsequently focuses on their
behaviour and decision-making processes. The model discussed above on decision-making (the
vacation tourist behaviour model) are too broad and complex, but this can be used to test the
empirical results of the study. To elaborate on a more precise and accurate model of decision-
making and, next subsection will focus on a discussion of the research gap.

2.4.3.3 The Research Gap

Howard (1963) first anticipated and particularised the choice sets theory within the literature
of consumer behaviour while examining the processes involved in making a purchase decision.
The "choice sets" concept or conceptual model argues that consumers gradually derive their

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final decisions from a pool of alternatives among a restricted number of favourable or potential
paths of action or alternatives (Thill & Wheeler, 2000). In tourism, the model has been in
examining the context of destination choices for tourists (Um & Crompton, 1990). Crompton
and Ankomah (1993) claim that perceived decisions with higher risk levels have more
likelihood of including higher information search levels and alternative evaluation. Similarly,
Sirakaya and Woodside (2005) while reviewing the theories of tourism decision-making
processes, postulated that “the choice sets approach offers a rather simple and practical
perspective to understanding the travellers' decision-making process.” (p. 828).

The processes that people undergo when deciding on what to do while at the destination has
received a significant level of attention in tourism literature. According to Gigerenzer &
Brighton (2009), heuristics are competent conceptual processes which ignore or assume the
available information, so are in contrast to the broadly perceived assessments that less
consumer information processing has a significant reduction in accuracy and precision of
decisions. The heuristic study purports that less computation, information to process and
limited time makes a momentous improvement on decision accuracy. According to Carnap
(1947), it is implicitly and explicitly affirmative that more information has effective impacts in
decision-making processes – “principle of total evidence.” Similarly, Good (1967) ascertains
that leaving out available observations and knowledge when making decisions is irrational.
Thus, all available information should be critically processed when examining the most
desirable alternative for final judgement. Gigerenzer & Brighton (2009) claims that heuristics
can generate more accurate and precise inferences or final judgments than approaches more
information processing and computation to make the judgment. Therefore, the accuracy-effort
adjustments mostly do not hold; in some instances, one can attain more accurate final
judgements with limited efforts even if the information for processing and computation are free
hence, in some situations, ‘less-is-more-effect’.

Gigerenzer & Brighton (2009) assert that the effects of the less-is-more model suggest that,
"more information or computation can decrease accuracy; therefore, minds rely on simple
heuristics to be more accurate than strategies that use more information and time" (p. 111).
Using heuristics to determine the accuracy of one's final judgement on the potential alternatives
disregards the overreliance on complex computation and estimations using more information.
Thus, the “less-is-more effect” (p.110) suggests that consumers would not attain any positive

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benefit by relying on sophisticated approaches, even in instances with zero opportunity costs
and direct costs. In homo heuristics, when refer to less information, ignore cues, weights, and
dependencies between cues (Gigerenzer & Brighton, 2009). However, these biased minds do
robustly and efficiently handle uncertainties that unbiased minds approach extensively rely on
general-purpose and resource-intensive processing approaches.

Nicosia (1966) postulates that the process of making the final decision at the destination
involves the selection of initial paths of action or alternatives to settle on the ultimate alternative
with the highest score rate. Gursoy and McCleary (2004) and Decrop and Snelders (2004)
revealed that these decision-making processes are moderated by the tourists' familiarity with
the destination as well as their expertise in traversing the area. Familiarity is used to refer to
the number of experiences the person has with the given product, while expertise refers to the
ability of the consumer to perform tasks relating to the product. Therefore, more experienced
tourists will easily make final decisions of a high score rate than the inexperienced and first-
timers. Similarly, Pearce and Wu (2016) confirm that the concept of "choice set" is popular in
explaining the choice of activities at the destination port and therefore indicates that tourists
are likely to settle for context-based decisions when making decisions. Thus, Weeden, Lester,
and Thyne (2011) regard time as a barrier to the ability of tourists to take a more realistic
approach to decision-making.

De Cantis et al. (2016) and Lindner-Cendrowska and Błażejczyk (2018) also observed that
weather strongly influences tourists' activity decision-making processes at a destination. In
tourism destination, due to demand for natural seasonal experiences by tourists, climate
variability and change affect the choice of destination in many ways. Juan & Chen (2012) while
considering the intangible nature and characteristics of tourism, contend that tourists with no
or little prior experience with given destination activities often depend on advice from cruise
tour guides to make judgments and determine the quality of a product or service. Therefore,
the choice of particular activities at the destination with the highly influential price factor
makes price a significant attribute in deciding on their final activity decision.

Johnson and Messmer (1991) also affirm that advertising and making marketers' information
accessible to the tourists have a far-reaching influence on their decisions and wishes,
motivations, needs, and likes and dislikes. Through advertisements and marketers' information,

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service providers can convince tourists to purchase certain products or services and influence
their activity decision-making, thus increasing their sales volumes. While several decision-
making models for understanding the consumers'/tourists' behaviour at a destination have been
critically conceptualised, e.g., the comprehensive model of tourist decision-making (both basic
and complex decision-making processes), vacation tourist behaviour model and consumer
information processing model, few research studies have empirically tested them.

Therefore, in making unconditionally accurate and reliable decisions at destinations, tourists

require adequate information and computation about the prices of the products and services
since price have a significant impact on their choice of activity to pursue. Familiarity and
expertise, weather and time also help the tourists to quickly decide on the products and services
that effectively satisfy their needs depending on their past experiences. The next section will
now present the research question for the thesis concerning the most critical points from the
literature.

2.5 Research Question

Various decision-making models are highly criticised by several researchers who have
consequently challenged their general assumptions. Hyde & Lawson (2003) have criticised the
decision-making models arguing that they have failed to consider the complexity of the
decision-making processes in the tourism industry, which is characterised by unique
characteristics where travel decisions are composed. Similarly, Decrop & Snelders (2004)
argue that facts trigger the complexity of decision-making processes in the tourism industry
and that decision-making processes in the travel industry consist of multiple decisions on
different vacation cruise itinerary elements. Choi et al. (2012) make a similar challenging
argument on intricate patterns that are associated with the decision-making processes in the
tourism sector. Bronner & de Hoog (2008) reported that the decision-making models failed to
consider group or dyadic decisions that are common within the context of tourism. Lastly,
March & Woodside (2005) argued that the complexity of decision-making was heightened
since diverse levels of situational aspects significantly influence various travel decision-
making processes. Therefore, it is arguable that the heightened complexity levels of decision-

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making can intrinsically be captured if the research study focused on the factors influencing
cruise passengers’ activity decision-making process at the tourist destination.

Hsu et al. (2010) reported that there are few studies on the existing relationship between various
behavioural concepts like attitude and expectations. Also, Gnoth (1997) identified that most of
the studies have focused on tourists’ expectation formation while ignoring motivation
formation, as well as the relationship between affective aspects like destination attachment,
brand (loyalty and trust), brand personality, moods, attitude, emotions, and motivation.
Therefore, these research gaps trigger further study along with evaluation mechanisms on how
motivation arouses actual consumer behaviour decisions. Furthermore, Gursoy & McCleary
(2004) have suggested that a better understanding of the decision-making processes for tourists
is crucial for marketing strategy success. Since the cruise industry has become increasingly
competitive, it is essential for the management of the cruise industry to better comprehend the
decision-making processes of their passengers in a comprehensive manner (CLIA, 2006).

Based on the above-illustrated research gap, the study resorted to addressing the question below:

What are the factors that influence cruise passengers’ activity decision-
making at a tourism destination?

This study provides a critical analysis of the factors influencing cruise passengers’ activity
decision-making by developing a simpler conceptual model based on the vacation tourist
behaviour model and complex decision-making model. Also, crucial in understanding the
behaviour of decision-making in cruise tourism. Primarily, it exposes the decision-making
activity of the passengers, an issue that previous studies have not addressed comprehensively
(Bronner & de Hoog, 2008). The previous consumer behaviour models have not addressed the
decision-making activity of tourists in different contexts, an issue that this study seeks to
examine, particularly within cruise tourism. Such a decision is essential given the uniqueness
of cruise tourism within the general tourism industry (Hyde & Lawson, 2003; Weeden, Lester,
& Thyne, 2011), especially when it comes to tourists’ authority to make independent decisions.

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Moreover, this study will help cruise companies to adopt suitable and sound destination
marketing strategies while taking note of the factors that attract tourists in the cruise tourism
sector. The outcome of this study will be critical in informing all the stakeholders in the cruise
industry, especially the management of the various initiatives they need to take to improve
services. It also covers the factors that facilitate or hamper the decision-making initiatives by
cruise tourists in the cruise tourism destination, thereby understanding how the industry
operates in general and particularly how it affects tourists which is very important. Lastly, the
study will provide vital literature to furnish or add to the existing empirical studies on consumer
decision-making activity in the cruise industry.

2.6 Summary of the Literature Review

Chapter 1 provided an introduction and detailed background to the study on the factors
influencing cruise passengers’ activity decision-making. It provided an overview of the
research methodology adopted by the researcher as well as the objectives of the study. Lastly,
not only does the chapter highlight the research problem but also details the justification of the
research.

In this chapter, the literature review has provided a detailed account and review of multiple
pieces of literature on the cruise industry overview, cruise tourism, tourist destination while
focusing on the definition and marketing. Additionally, the researcher has comprehensively
examined consumer behaviour of tourists, the tourist decision-making process, and particularly
the consumers’ information search process. Given the importance of destination tourism and
the cruise industry, many research studies are focusing on cruise tourists’ decision-making.
Previous literature found that a variety of cruise vacation attributes largely influence cruise
customers’ choice of their cruise vacation. Furthermore, the literature focuses on the
perceptions held by cruise customers regarding their expectation of the destination, and the
power of these expectations to influence their decision-making process.

A complex decision-making model is applicable to product categories that are high-priced,

have close performance risk association, are complex in nature, are products with speciality

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and those associated with an individual's ego. The model involves five distinct phases during
the decision-making process, including problem recognition, information search, alternatives
evaluation, choice, and choice outcomes. In complex decision-making, including that of
consumers, the five phases are translated into need arousal, consumer information processing,
brand evaluation, purchase, and purchase evaluation. The factors that influence activity
decision-making processes of cruise passengers include time limit at the cruise destination,
prices of the products/services/activities, familiarity with the destination and expertise, and
weather conditions at the destination.

The following chapter discusses the methodological approach adopted by the researcher in
pursuing the study. It includes the research design, research paradigms, data collection
approach, data analysis, and ethical considerations.

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Chapter Three: Methodology

This chapter highlights the approach adopted by the researcher to pursue the study on the
factors influencing cruise passengers’ activity decision-making at a tourism destination. While
there is substantial literature on tourism decision-making behaviour, the information on tourists
in the cruise industry is scanty. Besides, the models applied by previous scholars only explain
the behaviour of tourists in general, thereby failing to explain the specific decision-making
activity of consumers in the cruise sector.

This chapter elaborates on how the research will proceed, including the rationale that led to the
choice of the research paradigm. The review uses a qualitative research methodology that is
guided by philosophical beliefs of knowledge and reality. The study uses intercept interviews
for data collection because of their ability to inform the comprehension and interpretation of
the given research questions. The researcher is, therefore, able to demonstrate the factors that
influence cruise passengers’ activity decision-making through an analytical engagement with
participants.

In more detail, this chapter will first outline the research method used, the research paradigm,
the data collection method, data analysis method, and finally, the validity and limitations of the
methodology and the ethical considerations. This chapter is comprised of seven sections:

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3.1 Qualitative Research Methodologies
3.2 Research Paradigms
3.3 Method of Data Collection
3.3.1 Intercept Interviews
3.3.2 Selection of Location and Population
3.3.3 Recording of the Data
3.4 Data Analysis Method
3.4.1 Coding data and Themes identification
3.4.2 Use of Web-site Information
3.5 Validity and Limitations
3.6 Ethics Consideration
3.7 Summary

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 3.1 Qualitative Research Methodologies

In order to fulfil the research objectives, the researcher used a qualitative research methodology.
Qualitative research methodologies are comprising of a series of steps often misunderstood for
being research without numbers. On the other hand, qualitative research methodologies are the
basis of human geography as they involve a plethora of theoretical researches, both
methodological and philosophical, that address the meaning of questions (Oun & Bach, 2014).
Therefore, the nature of qualitative research methodologies remains subjective, which happens
to be the case in the results of this study (Oun & Bach, 2014). Qualitative research
methodologies are well established to research phenomena in social sciences (Petty, Thomson,
& Stew, 2012). Increasingly, qualitative research gained much acceptance within the field of
tourism in the early twenty-first century (Altinay, Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015).

Qualitative research is known to involve the use of small samples, with non-quantifiable
outcomes. The main advantage of using this methodology is that it results in a complete
description and analysis of the topic, which constitutes the major difference with quantitative
research (Collis & Hussey, 2013). Furthermore, the method limits neither the scope of the study
nor the responses given by participants. The effectiveness of the research methodology depends
on the researcher’s skill set and abilities. On the other hand, it is not easy to determine the
reliability of the results because the researcher uses his judgement and interpretations (Collis
& Hussey, 2013). Considering the small sample size, it is risky to assume that the results
represent a wider population. Having discussed the methodology used in this study, the
following section looks at the research paradigm that was followed for the purpose of fulfilling
the study.

3.2 Research Paradigms

Being a multidisciplinary field, research in the tourism industry incorporates many discipline-
based methodologies in studying the economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism.
Researchers have applied different methods to conduct research in tourism (Altinay,
Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015). Law and Buhalis (2010) have linked this to the fact that tourist

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research is related to epistemological, ontological, and philosophical issues especially in terms
of what to study, how it is studied, and the reason for the study. The following table presents a
summary of the various scientific paradigms in the research:

Table 2. Summary of Research Paradigm

Paradigm Ontology Epistemology

Positivism There is a single reality
Constructivism No single reality. It is created by
individuals in a group
Critical theory Reality is a socially constructed
truth under the internal influence
Realism Reality is constantly renegotiated
(Source: Haddadi et al., 2017)
Uses reliable tools to obtain the reality
Reality needs to be interpreted
The society determines the perceptions
of power relations have a similar effect
The best method is the one that actually
solves the problem

Researchers associate paradigms with certain methodologies (Taylor & Medina, 2011;
Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2005). For instance, a positivistic paradigm is most likely to be used
with a quantitative methodology, while the constructivist paradigm is linked to a qualitative
methodology (Arghode, 2012). On the other hand, others think that this is not universally the
case (Burrell & Morgan, 2017; Taylor & Medina, 2011). In some instances, researchers use a
quantitative methodology to pursue interpretative studies (Hesse-Biber, 2010; Westerman,
2011). This means that no one paradigmatic framework is restricted to a particular
methodology and it is up to the researcher to determine the most appropriate paradigmatic view
and the one that best informs the research design. The researcher’s perspective of what is real
along with the theoretical review of the existing literature that exists on the subject guided the
researcher to select the realism paradigm as the most appropriate for this study. The following
section analyses developments across all the four scientific research paradigms in relation to
tourism research.

Positivism
Positivism holds that researchers can only use scientific methods to determine truth and reality
(Van Merriënboer & De Bruin, 2014). Positivism is developed on the notion that right
knowledge only derives from science as a foundation. In this regard, techniques and procedures

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that dominate natural sciences are regarded as the most appropriate frameworks that can be
used to investigate the social world. Positivism is introduced as a research philosophy
commonly used to influence studies in the tourism and hospitality industry (Scotland, 2012).
The focus of the positivist paradigm is on positive data that can be verified using empirical
methods. It is therefore to identify the falsification of facts using the positivistic paradigm
(Spector-Mersel, 2010). In a review of the main assumptions made in the positivism paradigm,
it was found that positivism has a significant influence on research within the tourism sector
(Petty, Thomson, & Stew, 2012). On the contrary, the majority of these researchers level
criticism on the principles of the positivism paradigm, therefore giving it little space in the
scientification of tourism research.

Critical theory
Recently, there have been critical changes in tourism research. These changes affect the
majority of research in social sciences, particularly through the adoption of critical theory in
research (Altinay, Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015). The critical theory paradigm challenges existing
theories and societal practices. Criticalists, therefore, have the tendency to question models,
measuring, and analysing practices with the aim of describing experiences (Carspecken, 2013).
For instance, a study discussed the role of critical theory in informing tourism studies and
concluded that it is not a research method per se. Instead, it was identified as a research
approach with the potential of revealing inequalities and contributing to positive societal
changes (Altinay, Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015). In this regard, critical theory paradigm is
explained through six principles: its ability to ask critical questions; the tendency to expose; its
challenge power relations; its state of mind; its rejection of the absolute truth; and its role in
raising awareness.

Constructivism
Constructivism addresses the understanding of the world the way other people experience it
(Lee, 2012). The difference between constructivist and positivist paradigms is grounded on
assumptions about reality, the sources of knowledge, and the role of reality and knowledge in
the research process (Scotland, 2012). Constructivism dates back to the philosophy of
phenomenology that studied human consciousness and self-awareness (Duit, 2012). Given this

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foundation, constructivists consider knowledge as socially constructed and mind-dependent
and, therefore, subjective. This means that truth is dependent on the human experience. Cultural
and historical context dependency can be used to validate the truthfulness of statements,
although some truths are universal.

Realism
Research involves studying reality; that is, the way things happen in the real world (Shannon-
Baker, 2016). Therefore, the main intention of researchers’ engagement in fieldwork is to
explore the unknown culture and support assertions regarding how reality works. Here,
fieldwork represents the process of collecting data using various methods. Although the realist
paradigm is commonly associated with qualitative research, some researchers associate the
fieldwork aspect with quantitative data (Altinay, Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015; Arghode, 2012).
Even though fieldwork may be invaluable to the understanding of tourism, it comes with ethical,
methodological, and personal challenges, which researchers have to deal with.

Of the four paradigms discussed above, this study will focus on factors influencing decision-
making within the realism paradigm. Unlike the realism paradigm, the positivism paradigm
depends on the creation of knowledge on apprehensible reality using procedures that are well
known (Sobh & Perry, 2006). On the other hand, constructivism and critical theory tend to be
explicit or implicit. This means that they assume that reality is a subjective construction, which
is inappropriate for destination marketing and decision-making processes (Arghode, 2012). In
this regard, the principles of the realism paradigm have an impact on the design of this study
in a manner that would not be achieved using constructivism or critical theory paradigms.
Realism researchers tend to consider prior theories before conducting research (Arghode, 2012;
Sobh & Perry, 2006). Realists believe in external reality and that the study topic has been
experienced before. This means that perceptions based on previous experiences deserve some
consideration before collecting data for this study as presented in the literature review.

The realism paradigm stipulates that the decision intention is a reality and should be part of the
decision-making model, a concept not supported by other schools of thought (Ranyard, 2014).
Critical realism calls for the understanding of decision intention as a mental entity and a
manifestation of observable decision behaviour. In doing so, realism forms a strong foundation

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upon which this research on consumer behaviour in decision-making in the cruise industry
manifests. Notably, the model perceives such consumer-related decision intentions as a reality
and objective contrary to other models like constructivism and relativism, which assumes them
as subjective. It is vital to embrace positivity and confidence while making decisions, an issue
that is applicable even to the tourism industry (Ranyard, 2014).

3.3 Method of Data Collection

Throughout history, humans have made efforts to explain condition through narratives that
focus on their experiences (Scotland, 2012). Some researchers consider the original paradigm
of inquiries in human behaviour to be achievable through conversation between two people
(Altinay et al., 2015; Burrell & Morgan, 2017). In this sense, interviews are research techniques
with roots in sociology. The use of interviews takes many forms such as structured,
unstructured, closed, and open-ended conversations (Alshenqeeti, 2014). This study uses
interceptive interviews for data collection. The point of focus of interceptive interviews is the
individual, as it assumes that individuals possess unique and important knowledge that is easily
shared through verbal communication (Anyan, 2013). It is, therefore, the role of the researcher
to guide the interview session using open-ended questions, which guide the informant towards
interpreting the topic of study. The use of interviews is primarily built upon qualitative research
methodology, particularly the constructivism and realism paradigms (Arghode, 2012).
Researchers who identify with constructivism and realism paradigms and use interviews for
data collection assume that their researches are influenced by the nature of the target audience
(Alshenqeeti, 2014; Hesse-Biber, 2010). These researchers also describe researches as context-
specific and unique products that are created by both the researcher and informant. They
oversee the data collection process; the researcher had to use the right tools, identify a suitable
location and in turn collect the data. These form the basis of the following sections.

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 3.3.1 Intercept Interviews

The tourism experience creates an opportunity that favours interviews, particularly from the
experiences of the tourists themselves (Altinay, Paraskevas, & Jang, 2015). Tourists are in the
best position to share their discretionary experiences with researchers because they are actively
involved in the act of tourism. In other words, tourists have the time to talk (Law & Buhalis,
2010). Additionally, transit agencies often embrace the above onboard survey technique to
acquire the information and opinions of different customers (Schaller, 2005). According to the
above authors, intercept surveys are crucial and cost-effective means of gathering vital
information on consumer behaviour and attitudes among other important aspects that can guide
the travel agencies to make certain marketing decisions (Schaller, 2005).

In this study, the researcher sought to embrace the intercept interview as a data collection tool
in gathering information about the cruise passengers on site. In doing so, the researcher
intended to get immediate feedback on the factors that influence the decision-making of cruise
passengers. Mainly, the intercept interview narrowed down the questions in the protocol to
conform to study objectives, notably, the factors that influence the consumers in the cruise
industry to make certain decisions, more so on their intended vacation destinations.

Altinay, Paraskevas, and Jang (2015) argues that tourists are always willing and eager to
discuss tourism-related topics because they have to recount their experiences, an issue that was
critical in this study as the researcher sought to gather information on cruise passengers’
decision-making.

The researcher embraced a suitable intercept interview protocol to guide her in addressing the
objectives and purpose of the study during the interview (The interview protocol appears in
Appendix 1). The protocol included questions on the influences of cruise passenger decision-
making, an issue that aligns to the tourist vacation behaviour model. The model forms the basis
upon which this study is explained and pursued. First, the interview protocol included a script
that guided the researcher on the relevant questions throughout the interview. The first aspect
of the interview consisted of the introductory questions, where the researcher asked questions
about the respondents, including how is their day; how is the cruise trip, among other questions
to warm up the interview participants.

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Meanwhile, the interview protocol also comprised of only open-ended questions in the attempt
to encourage cruise passengers to provide as much information on their decision-making
behaviour as possible. The questions were arranged so as to be easy and convenient for the
cruise tourists to respond to. The intention of adopting such a methodology was to gain the
trust and confidence of the interviewees on a gradual basis, an issue which would ensure the
gathering of a substantial amount of information on consumer behaviour in the cruise tourism
sector (Schaller, 2005). Lastly, the researcher not only used prompts to keep her on track during
the interview but also utilised such wordings as “tell me about” to invite the respondents to the
interview session. The protocol enabled the researcher to gather vital and considerable data on
the factors influencing consumers’ decision-making behaviour in the cruise tourism industry.

The intercept interview enabled the researcher to see the problem from the perspective of the
interviewees, even before offering a scientific explanation. Intercept interviews are undertaken
as daily life conversation despite having a structure and a purpose. Nevertheless, this does not
make the two parties equal partners in the interview (Campbell et al., 2013). Intercept
interviews tend to be unstructured and personal with the aim of identifying the emotions,
feelings, and opinions of the participant concerning the research topic. Intercept interviews
have two main advantages (Gill & Johnson, 2002). First is the aspect of personal, direct contact
with the participants, and second, is their ability to minimise non-response rates. On the other
hand, they require researchers to possess the necessary skills for interviewing in addition to
being flexible in the interview session, thereby allowing them to coming up with conclusions
that are particular to the research subject (Alshenqeeti, 2014).

3.3.2 Use of Web Info

The website information was also a valuable resource of information and data that was used
for discussion and analysis in this study. The researcher accessed the websites of some of the
companies that provide feedback services for their cruise tour experience. They were accessed
to enable the researcher to get information on consumer feedback. The feedback showed the
level of satisfaction of the consumers with the services that they received from the companies,

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and was in the form of comments and ratings given by consumers on their opinions of particular
products from companies in the sector.

The data collected was important because it showed the general trend of consumer satisfaction
in the cruise sector. It also showed the opinions of the consumers on their expectations and
whether or not they were met, and what they enjoyed most about the services offered by the
cruise companies. Further, the ratings of the consumers were also compared to the themes
formulated for the study; this helped in showing how the various factors affected consumer
decision-making and level of satisfaction. As such, the analysis also enabled the researcher to
draw conclusions and recommendations on how the cruise companies could enhance their
customer satisfaction. Such recommendations can also inform any framework being
formulated to explain the decision-making process among consumers in the cruise sector.

3.3.3 Selection of Location and Population

Selection of Location
The researcher selected Dunedin Railway Station and Port Chalmers as the locations for
conducting the interviews. Dunedin, the fourth largest city in New Zealand and tourists, can
offer shopping and dining experiences among other urban comforts ("Dunedin Cruise Ships: 5
Must Do’s In Dunedin," 2016). The main reason behind the selection of Dunedin Railway
Station to act as a location for doing the interviews is because of its popularity as an area for
shore excursions. Furthermore, it receives many cruise ship passengers and boasts of having
great train journey experiences. The Taieri Gorge Train excursion gives the visitors an
opportunity to view the iconic building which is the Dunedin Railway Station as the train
traverses from the central part of the city and the Taieri Plains to reach Taieri Gorge ("Dunedin
Cruise Ships: 5 Must Do’s In Dunedin," 2016). Throughout the trip, tourists are able to view
tunnels and bridge crossings among other panoramic views of New Zealand’s scenery.

Similarly, Port Chalmers that is 13.1km from the Dunedin Town Centre, was selected to be a
location for carrying out interviews because it is the destination port for Otago. This year alone,
the port has received 115 vessels with almost 153000 passengers visiting the city (Loughrey,

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2019). Furthermore, Port Chalmers is marketed as a favourite itinerary for many cruise ships.
The area surrounding the port has boutiques, galleries, antique shops, and a museum that
attracts many tourists. The area also has cafes and eateries that act as resting areas for tourists.
These features have made the port a perfect destination for cruise passengers who want
souvenirs to take home or for the tourists who want to have a peaceful walk along the streets
("Dunedin Cruise Ships: 5 Must Do’s In Dunedin," 2016). Given that the weather on days that
the researcher went to collect data was not good, the majority of the cruise passenger did not
go to the city, but instead just walked around Port Chalmers. This made it easy to conduct
interviews as there was more time and the tourists could easily make their way back to the
cruise ship.

Selection of Population
Participants involved in the intercept interview were tourists who travelled by cruise ship to
Dunedin. The cruise ships targeted were the Viking Orion, which was travelling on 18 February
2019 and 08 March 2019; Radiance of the seas (19 and 27 of February, 2019, Ovation of the
Seas (22 February, 2019; 12 March, 2019, 03 April, 2019), Queen Elizabeth (24 February 2019
and 26 March 2019), Majestic Princess (26 February 2019; 07 and 17 March 2019) and the
Golden Princess (06 March; 14 March; 27 March and 12 April 2019). The summary of the
sample population is shown in Table 3.

Table 3. Summary of the Sample Population

Total visited Dunedin during Cruise season 153,000 Passengers

Total ships visited during cruise season 115 Ships
Total Participants in this study 35 Passengers
Total ships researcher has visited 16 Ships
Viking Orion
Radiance of the seas
Ovation of the Seas
Queen Elizabeth
Majestic Princess
Golden Princess
Participants’ Age range 18 - 70
Total participants in Dunedin Railway Station 20 Participants
Total participants in Port Chalmers 15 Participants

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These ships were travelling mainly from Australia to New Zealand or Asian countries, and
their passengers came from all over the world. The researcher asked the participants whether
they were from a cruise ship and whether they wanted to take part in this interview willingly.
The participants were comfortable with English languages. There were no set criteria for
selecting participants except that they were currently on a cruise ship tour as at the time of the
interview. Following the suggestion of Etikan, Musa, Alkassim (2016); Vehovar, Toepoel, and
Steinmetz (2016); and Price (2013), the researcher used nonprobability based convenience
sampling techniques to approach people at the Dunedin Railway Station and Port Chalmers on
the days when the cruise ships were in the port. Total sample number is 35 cruise passengers
as saturation reached during the cruise season in Dunedin, New Zealand.

3.3.4 Recording of the Data

During the first conversation with every informant, the researcher did not use or even ask to
use a voice recorder. Instead, the researcher first developed enough confidence of respondents
before asking to use a voice recorder. Furthermore, the researcher required the informants to
sign informed consent after recording. The use of a voice recorder gave the interviewer an
opportunity of giving full attention to the respondent during the interview and avoiding the
need to scribble notes. The researcher on a word-word basis then transcribed the recorded data.
Having collected and transcribed the research data, the next part will focus on the analysis of
the data to develop the themes.

3.4 Data Analysis Method

The main reason for conducting data analysis is to identify patterns of facts and build up
explanations (Braun, Clarke, Hayfield, & Terry, 2019). While there are various methods for
conducting data analysis in qualitative research, the researcher used thematic analysis to
highlight and emphasise the crucial information that would lead to the result making the
process and a conclusion of the study. In this regard, the thematic analysis deals with data by

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creating and applying codes to data (Vaismoradi, Turunen, & Bondas, 2013). The codes were
then categorised into themes that were important to address the research. This method offers
more than just summarising the data, but rather interprets and makes sense of it.

3.4.1 Coding Data and Themes identification

Codes are highlighted sections of text to help illustrate the research topic. In qualitative
research, coding involves searching and identifying concepts as well as the relationship
between them (Guest, MacQueen, & Namey, 2012). This means that coding is not just about
highlighting texts; the data must be linked to the research topic and other data. The researcher
coded the data manually. Typically, the researcher identified and highlighted the keywords,
concepts, images and reflections in the interview data.

The codes made it easier for the researcher to organise the data and analyse it in a structured
manner. The data analysis process requires continuous refining and adjusting of the codes
(Braun, et al., 2019). In fact, the researcher was able to alter and modify the process as new
ideas emerged. The researcher ensured that each code was clear and concise for them to be
used as foundations for the themes. This refinement expands the ideas as more data is added,
resulting in the formation of themes.

Therefore, coding is a precursor to the actual thematic analysis. Based on the identified codes,
the researcher came up with themes that represented emerging patterns from the coded data.
The researcher largely relied on the frequency of occurrence of conversation topics and
vocabulary to establish the themes.

3.5 Validity and Limitations

Validity refers to the appropriateness of the methods used for collecting data, the data itself,
the sampling method and data analysis process (Ali & Yusof, 2011). The choice of the
methodology made it easier to collect data that would answer the question. The process of
selecting the informants was important to the study. Having recognised and appreciated the

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reasons for studying the selected sample, the researcher took all possible measures to avoid
bias, prejudice, and purposive sampling. The researcher restricted the length and structure of
the interview to 3 to 5 minutes because the passengers were in a rush to visit other places.
Having based the interview on the task rather than being regimental, structured and rigid, the
informants were engaged throughout the interview session. Lastly, the researcher was keen on
her role as an active listener in order to gain the trust of the respondents and ensure that they
gave honest answers. Active listening involves focusing on the interviewee and being
supportive. Furthermore, the researcher avoided being interruptive and judgmental.

The limitation of the research methodology is that it would be difficult for the researcher to
extend the findings of the research to wider populations with the equal amount of certainty
offered by quantitative methods (Alshenqeeti, 2014). The above issue is attributable to the fact
that the statistical significance of the results is not tested. As common with qualitative research
methodologies, this study used a small sample size of 35, therefore raising the issue of
generalizability of the research findings to the entire population of cruise passengers. Finally,
qualitative research was mainly focused on the experiences of individuals, therefore making it
difficult for the researcher to validate and confirm the results of the original study. The
researcher also faced other challenges that might have affected the research findings.
Meanwhile, the bad weather and the fact that some of the tourists were always in a rush to visit
different places limited the time for conducting the interviews.

3.6 Ethics Consideration

The qualitative research approach was utilised to address the research questions. The
theoretical perspective of this research project is cruise tourists’ decision-making, and this
understanding is based on the factors that influence decision-making among cruise passengers’
activities in the particular destination that they should engage in while they are on a cruise ship
vacation. The survey used in this thesis has been reviewed and approved by the Department of
Marketing, Otago University Business School. Moreover, the survey has also been approved
by the University of Otago Human Ethics Committee (Category B). The ethical approval
ensures that the researcher follows the suitable procedure to protect the rights and

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confidentiality of the respondents and the survey details have been explained in detail in the
information sheet. (See Appendix 2) After conducting the interviews, the researcher knows
what happens in the later stages of the research. It is therefore important to anticipate ethical
issues and act cautiously to avoid the interviewee feeling that the researcher could violate their
privacy. Also, the interviewees were allowed to withdraw from the study at any moment.

3.7 Chapter Summary

The literature review chapter presented a detailed discussion of pieces of literature on the
factors influencing passengers’ decision-making activity at the vacation destination. The
subsequent chapter on methodology attempts to justify the methodological approach adopted
by the researcher in conducting the research. It explains the application of the constructivism
and realism research paradigm in the research. The chapter also highlights the detailed
procedure for conducting interviews and analysing data and the various challenges encountered
in the analysis of qualitative data. Nonetheless, the researcher made her best effort to overcome
the challenges. The researcher applied the thematic analysis framework when analysing the
data drawn from the interviews. Furthermore, various steps were undertaken to increase the
reliability and validity of the research. Similarly, the researcher addressed ethical issues in the
study. The next chapter discusses the results of the study, particularly the factors influencing
the decision-making activity of passengers at a vacation destination

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Chapter Four: Findings and Discussion

This chapter presents and discusses the results of the research with reference to meeting the
objectives of the study, which is to determine the factors that affect the decision-making on
cruise passengers’ daily activities on the day they arrive at a destination. The shallow research
on tourist behaviour in cruise tourism, as well as the lack of application of a suitable and
specific model to explain consumer behaviour among passengers at a vacation destination,
formed the rationale for this study. The study sought to uncover the factors that influence
passengers’ daily activity decision-making at the cruise vacation destination.

This chapter proceeds by providing a summary of the themes and coding process. It then
elaborates the themes that were identified which are time, price, weather, familiarity and
expertise, and cruise passengers’ expectations and satisfaction. In addition, the sections include
evidence of the informants’ perspective of how the given factors affect their decision-making.
By linking these themes with tourist decision-making, this section provides the answer to the
research question. The researcher used quotes from the informants to illustrate the findings.

4.1 Themes and Coding

The process of coding was simple for the researcher to identify and assign code names to the
text after transcribing the interview data. Using the codes, the researcher was able to identify
links between meaningful units of the data. At this stage of analysis, the researcher did not need
to interpret the data.

The coding process leaves room for the researcher to adjust and re-code until she reaches a
point where she remains with a set of reasonable codes. As the researcher encountered a text
with similar meaning, they were assigned the same code names. The next step involved sorting
the codes into categories. Codes were categorised after comparing and appraising them in order
to identify similar codes and form a category. In other words, categories are formed using codes

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that talk about the same issue and require limited interpretation by the researcher. The
researcher then put similar codes into one category and came up with categories that reflect
consistent and overarching themes. This is the point where the researcher engaged in answering
the research question from the data. The themes represented the different factors that influence
decision-making.

Having created categories that are rich in meaningful, the researcher came up with themes. For
this research, the researcher continued to abstract data, however, this time to categories themes
and resulting in fives themes. The themes answered the research questions as they represented
the factors that affect tourist decision-making when they arrive at a destination. Table 4 is an
example of how the codes were developed into themes. As the researcher found, time was a
major factor considered by tourists in decision-making and this is evidenced by the time-related
topics selected during the coding process. Weather is also identified as an integral part of
tourism decision-making. The type of prevailing weather at the destination port affects the
tourists’ experience and activities during their holiday.

Nevertheless, tourists have no control over the weather. This means that the tourists have to
deal with weather patterns during their stay at the port. Tourists also desire to reduce costs
while travelling. This makes the price associated with engaging in the various activities an
important construct in decision-making. Another theme identified in the research is familiarity
and expertise that in turn affects judgment and decision-making. In this regard, some of the
decisions made by tourists regarding the activities to engage in on the day they arrive at the
destination are as a result of cognitive shortcuts provoked by previous experiences. Finally, the
expectations of the cruise passenger is a key determinant of their satisfaction levels and hence
may influence their consideration of similar and other activities in the future.

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Table 4. Summary of the Codes and Themes

Themes Sub-themes Exampled Codes

We do not have that much time to spend here
We do not have that much time to go and have a look by
Time Constraint ourselves
Psychological We do not have that time to do everything by ourselves, so
Perception of we just let them know what we want
time in There was not a whole a lot of time it was somewhat last
decision- Rush
minute
making I already had a week of time to put what I thought would be
great to do into play.
Plan Early
Yeah, so we book on board and makes it easy, you know, we
do not have that much time to spend here
I'm choosing not to go on a tour from the boat because they
Expensive are very expensive
Well, we know that too, it is expensive to do more research.

Price We get off the boat and then we know what is cheaper. So
perspectives that is what we do
in decision- Cheaper options See what is available to see around the place, and what is the
making cheapest option to do rather than, um, buy a cruise offer on
the ship
As we have spent a lot of money on the cruise, so.
Price Conscious
we did not really wanna pay that to go do that
But the weather is not so good. I’m not sure I will go to see
all the place I want to
Bad weather
Weather We are satisfied, the weather is not good today and we are not
variability in on the rush and let the rush go first
decision- Well, we managed to go to the castle and got a bit wet there,
making but that is okay
Good weather
This sort of weather suits me beautifully. I'm very
comfortable with this weather. I hate the heat.
I do it a long time beforehand. Normally, it sounds a little bit
Previous crazy but, we do some
The level of experience Well sometimes we do and especially if it is places we have
expertise and been before
experience in
decision- When I do searching, I just list all of the places I want to see
making Experienced in my logbook.
decision-maker Based on recommendations and based on our own experience
of what certain things should be
Psychological They actually give us some information the night before we
Perception of arrive Dunedin.
External Marketing
Stimuli in communications Had a bit of search on the internet, work out what to see what
decision- is available to see around the place
making
(Source: developed by author for this research)

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 4.2 Psychological Perception of time in decision-making

Time plays a crucial role in influencing decision-making among travellers in regards to the
choice of destination activity. This study sought to evaluate the psychological perception of
time in decision-making. The study also established that time remains a crucial tenet in the
decision-making endeavour of customers across sectors, including but not limited to cruise
tourism. The time available for tourists to decide on the activities to engage in during the stop
at Dunedin and the time between purchasing and paying for the activities has an influence on
the purchasing behaviour. For instance, some of the tourists paid little attention to the details
of the activities due to lack of time when deciding their participation. Generally, the tourists
were more likely to adopt a decision on the number of events to engage in more easily despite
the limited time that they had at the destination.

Similarly, the time available for the tourists to make decisions regarding the activities at the
destination affected the amount of information they were able to process. When evaluating the
quality of their choices, the tourists referred to the length of time that they had when choosing
between options. The findings also showed that the tourist tends to make the choices that are
the least time-consuming, especially when they want to visit areas but have limited time to do
so.

For example, one of the interview participants gave the following response:
“We searched a bit of information on the ship, and we do not have that much time
to go and have a look by ourselves” (Interview Participant 1).

This response coincides with the outcome of previous studies, particularly as highlighted in the
vacation tourist behaviour model. The first part shows the information-sensitivity of
individuals through search and comprehension before deciding on a destination as stipulated
in the decision and purchase stage of the model (Cohen, Prayag, & Moital, 2014; Cai, Feng, &
Breiter, 2004). According to this response, it is also clear that consumers make travelling
decisions based on the information they have. For instance, feedback from family and friends

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influences the decision-making of individuals: if the feedback is negative individuals are highly
likely to avoid travelling to a particular destination.

Similarly, the information that a destination gives through its website and marketing help in
convincing travellers to visit a destination. As such, it is important for a destination to market
itself effectively and also satisfy its consumers so that they can give positive word-of-mouth
accounts to others concerning the destination.

Another example of interview participants notes:

“We do not have that much time to visit that much place only a few places we really
want to go, and the last shuttle is 2:30 pm, we need to catch that. You know. --- time
issues” (Interviewee Participant 2).

This respondent emphasises not only the sensitivity and significance of time in the tourism but
also reinforces the argument that cruise passengers have no outright authority in decision-
making compared to tourists in other tourism segments (Ekinci, Sirakaya-Turk, & Preciado,
2013). The phenomenon affirms the argument laid previously in this study that reiterates the
uniqueness of the cruise tourism segment, hence the need to embrace different models in
explaining the factors underpinning the decision-making process.

The thirteenth interview participant also reinforced the argument on the perception of time as
a critical aspect in the decision-making process of the tourists, mainly cruise passengers
(Weeden, Lester, & Thyne, 2011; Lu et al., 2016).

The 13th interview participant saids

“The train tour is 2 hours and we need to go back at 2:30 pm, the last shuttle bus
back to the ship. It is really not much time for us to do more things. So we are just
gonna walk around and head back.” (Interview Participant 13).

The time available for tourists to decide on the activities to engage in during the stop-over at
Dunedin and the time between purchasing and paying for the activities influenced their
purchasing behaviour. Further, decision-making at this time is influenced by the available time.

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Since there is a limited time, travellers can only engage in limited activities and the ones that
are not time-consuming.

On the other hand, one of the tourists acknowledged that given enough time, they would
consider processing more information before deciding on the activities to engage in at Dunedin.
However, it is common for them to make decisions as soon as they are due. The initiative
implies that the tourists settle on activities that meet their minimal requirements, including time
(Lu et al., 2016) without the need for further investigation as highlighted by the 18th respondent
and supported by previous empirical studies (Eusébio & Vieira, 2013).

“Ahead of time, yes, but we have very limited, access to the Internet once we are
on the ship. So, we had to do it all ahead of time but we made a lot of decisions
through electronic means.” (Interview Participant 18).

The above interview participants also acknowledged the role played by the internet in
conveying vital information on tourism destinations, including websites and social media. Such
information is critical in making decisions before, during, or after visiting a destination (Fotis,
Buhalis, & Rossides, 2012). In summary, it helps in making decisions on the purchase and
choice of a destination activity.

Tourists’ fast decision-making reflects the influence of the cruise ship guides and the real-time
information that they provide through brochures. Some of the tourists consider the cruise
company to be experienced advisors and find them to help cushion against the time constraint
as well as ensure that they get back to the ship in time from the tour. In this regard, fast decisions
that are influenced by cruise ship guides were made based on adequate information and upon
consideration of alternatives. Some tourists consider these decisions as more successful.

For example, this interview participant stated that:

“Everyone has been very helpful if we have had any questions. And the brochures
have been really informative as well.” (Interview Participant 24).

As noted previously in this research, primarily under the vacation tourist behaviour model,
information is one of the key factors considered by tourists before making purchase decisions

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(Jacobsen & Munar, 2012). The outcome of the interview is supported by the previous studies,
which emphasises the information search as one of the initiatives pursued by tourists before
making purchase decisions (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012). On the other hand, the brochures
provided by the cruise company as their main source of information depict the overreliance of
the tourists on the cruise firms, contrary to other segments where customers often make a
decision on their own and based on an information search (Dębski, 2014).

The 26th interview respondent affirmed the widespread knowledge on the dependence by
passengers on the information provided by cruise companies in making decisions. This
interview participant stated that “Absolutely the brochures that they hand out about, Dunedin
and then all the points of interest. We used the map a couple of times and had look at some of
the different points of interest in the stuff they hand out, so that is all very helpful.” (Interviewee
26). Besides, it is also worth noting that the passengers paid attention to the information
provided in the attempt to learn about various issues concerning the destination. Such an
initiative is encompassed in the decision and purchase stage of the vacation tourist behaviour
model (Moutinho, 2000). According to the model, customers often pay attention and learn, as
well as comprehend information retrieved through various means, including searches to make
vital purchase decisions (Moutinho, 2000).

“We book on board and makes it easy, you know, we do not have that much time to
spend here, yeah. And we book with them if we are late they will wait us. Otherwise,
you will need find your own way to catch the ship, they will not wait you.”
(Interview Participant 3)

“Yesterday night, before we arrive here. And, we do not have that time to do
everything by ourselves, so we just let them know what we want.” (Interview
Participant 10).

The arguments put forth by the third interview participant confirm the authority wielded by
cruise companies over cruise passengers in making decisions on vacations. The uniqueness of
the cruise tourism sector compared to other tourism aspects has a significant impact on the
decision-making ability of the passengers (Yun & MacDonald, 2014). Notably, cruise

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companies have no significant control compared to other tourism activities where tourists have
the ultimate authority, including issues with time.

It is vital to note that there is a significant difference in the behaviour of cruise passengers
compared to other tourists, particularly in the decision-making process. In this section, the
outcome of the interview portrayed individual tourists who have little or no authority at all in
making decisions on their intended vacation destination (Dowling & Weeden, 2017; Dolnicar,
2008). Notably, the cruise companies have control over such decisions, and any delay is likely
to impact negatively on the tourism activity, such as being left behind by the ship. The finding
affirms the uniqueness of cruise tourism compared to other tourism activities, particularly
regarding the decision-making process, in which time is highly significant.

Generally, tourists were more likely to embrace a decision on the number of events to engage
in more easily despite the limited time that they had at the destination. The quotes highlighted
above were chosen based on their relevance and significance to the aspect of time in cruise
passengers’ decision-making process. There is a need to understand the correlation between
ships, their destinations and stakeholders for a sustainable future in cruise tourism (Weeden,
Lester, & Thyne, 2011). The vacation tourist behaviour model classifies timing as one of the
compulsory sub-decision factors that often come after the tourism need has been aroused and
information gathered, but before the actual travel (Chon, Weaver, & Kim, 1991).

4.3 Price Perspectives in Decision-Making

Price consideration also influences consumer decision-making regarding the choice of

destination. In this study, the researcher sought to evaluate how price perspectives influenced
the respondents involved in the interviews. The results of the study support tourists’ desire to
reduce travel costs. On the other hand, cost and convenience emerge as important constructs in
decision-making. The majority of tourists associate the high price of purchasing tourism
products with insecurity in their decisions. The cost was depicted as a significant consideration
when making decisions on the activities at the destination. The main reason for this is that

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income varies among travellers, implying that low-income earners are more likely to consider
the cheapest available options when choosing the destination activity.

The findings of this research highlight the aspect of the price of a destination product as a
critical tenet in making decisions by cruise tourists. The majority of the tourists associated the
high price of purchasing tourism products with insecurity in their decisions (Becken, 2010; Xie,
Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). One participant stated that: “Well, the people there have given us
alternatives and that is fine, and I am choosing not to go on a-on a tour from the boat because
they are very expensive (Interview Participant 2)”

The findings showed that the price was a major consideration when making decisions on the
activity at the destination. In addition to timing and quality of destination products, price is an
equally important factor considered by tourists before making choices on destinations to visit
(Becken, 2010; Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012). However, purchase intentions often hinge on
the price, which in turn depends on the information available to the tourists, especially on the
existing alternatives. The second participant further laments that: “No, we did not do a lot of
research, really”.

By doing research, consumers usually acquire an array of information and knowledge on a

destination product, thereby searching for affordable prices based on the alternatives in the
market. The decision and purchase stage of the vacation tourist behaviour model stipulates
information search and comprehension as an underlying issue in the decision-making process
in the tourism sector, including cruise tourism (Moutinho, 1987).

Under the subset of stimulus filtration of the vacation tourist behaviour model, the availability
of adequate information on destination products affects the success of selling the destination
activities (Moutinho, 1987). Price and quality are notable factors of the stimulus and influence
the decision-making process significantly. Tourists make decisions based on their evaluation
of the existing information. Some of the tourists ignore the price factor, arguing that luxury
often comes at a cost. Price is one of the destination attributes classified under the choice
criteria by the vacation behaviour model that often influences the decision-making behaviour
of the tourists (Becken, 2010; Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012).

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Nonetheless, the issue of affordability is imminent in cruise tourism just like other segments of
tourism. Notably, the respondents made decisions on destination product based on the cost,
especially preferring what is cheaper for them. For example, interview participant 4 said that
“Well, we know that too, it is expensive to do more research. We get off the boat and then we
know what is cheaper. So that is what we do. (Interview Participant 4)”

A notable issue is a decision made by the respondents not to pursue research while onboard,
primarily because of the expensive nature of the research at the facility. Such an outcome points
towards the need for consideration by the cruise companies to factor in the aspect of price while
carrying out their destination marketing endeavours (Smallman & Moore, 2010).

In summary, the outcomes described above support previous studies on pricing and consumer
behaviour not only in the tourism industry but also across other sectors globally. Markedly, the
results also depict tourist activities as ordinary goods in which an increase in price lowers the
level of consumption (Cohena, Prayagb & Moital, 2014). Tourists give the impression that they
are not prepared and willing to pay extra to do the same activities offered by the cruise company
that destinations would offer them.

On the other hand, consumers in the tourism industry just like other industries have made
decisions after thorough and timely assessment of the intended product or service. The results
of this study point towards the same trend, albeit with specific differences. Particularly, the
respondents in this research highlighted specific attributes of the destination that have
significant impacts on their decision-making process. For instance, the sixth interview
participant explained that the issue of price, weather, and distance were key in informing his
decision-making practice.

“No, we do not. We do not want to make a decision that much early. We want to
see the weather, the distance and get the cheapest price for this. As we have spent
a lot of money on the cruise, so.” (Interview Participant 6)

As highlighted in the previous models, the issue of price and weather have often informed the
decisions of tourists intending to purchase or repurchase a destination product (Chua, Lee, Goh,
& Han, 2015; Becken, 2010; Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012).

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 “We could have but it is $20 a person, is very expensive for just ride to town and
back to the cruise, so we kinda, we did not really wanna pay that to go do that.”
(Interview Participant 23)

The 23rd interview participant reiterated the issue of price as an important factor in influencing
consumer behaviour across all industries. Some consumers would rather forfeit their
consumption of a destination based on the expensive nature of such a product as witnessed in
the above statement. The outcome of this study on pricing and consumer behaviour reinforces
the findings of a study conducted by Chua, Lee, Goh, and Han, (2015). In this study, the author
re-emphasised the important nature of price as a single factor in influencing the purchase
decision of consumers not only in the tourism industry but across the board, an outcome
supported by several previous studies on consumer behaviour (Chiam et al., 2009; Juan & Chen,
2012).

Nevertheless, the tourism industry, including cruise tourism is a sector characterised by

luxurious lifestyle, and therefore the issue of the price should not be expected to be an
overriding factor. Despite the motivation for new experiences, some tourists indicate that this
cannot be achieved without incurring greater costs. In this sense, some of the tourists ignore
the price factor and engage in multiple tours.

“Well, that is part of it. I mean, we have booked something that was maybe a little
bit more expensive just, because we wanted to do them.” (Interview Participant 13)

The element of price often affects the consumption of goods everywhere, including the tourism
sector. The outcome of this study acknowledges such impacts, especially as highlighted by the
participants or cruise passengers. Price remains at the heart of factors considered by tourists
while making purchase decisions, including cruise passengers. Price and time are some of the
tourist product attributes classified under the choice criteria by the vacation behaviour model
that often influence tourists’ decision-making behaviour. Also, it is important to note how the
vacation tourist behaviour model has not prioritised pricing, timing, and aspect of weather in
the three-stage discussion of the model (Moutinho, 2000). The decision hinges on the obvious

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reason that these factors are compulsory in making decisions on the purchase of a destination
product, therefore focus on them (Moutinho, 2000; Cai, Feng, & Breiter, 2004).

4.4 Weather Variability in Decision-Making

The study also sought to determine the impact of variability of the weather on decision-making
among travellers in the sector. The results of the interviews include weather-related texts that
link the wide range of weather patterns to tourism activities. It is evident that the presence of
certain weather patterns results in tourists cancelling certain activities.

For example, this Interview Participant noted that: “No, we do not. We do not want to make the
decision that much early. We want to see the weather, the distance and get the cheapest price
for this.” (Interview Participant 6) This statement highlights the influence of weather and price,
as well as distance in making decisions on tourism destinations.

On the other hand, some tourists are highly adaptable to the weather and describe their adaptive
behaviour. Adverse weather forced the tourists to consider other options like protection, delay
or even other activities that would suit the bad weather. The findings of this study relate weather
patterns to the decision-making process in the tourism industry, including cruise tourism. While
some tourists are often adaptable to the changes in weather patterns, others have gone as far as
cancelling their travel plans as a result of such changes. This shows that changes in the weather
patterns significantly influenced the decision-making among travellers in regards to the
destinations they chose to visit.

“But the weather is not so good, I m not sure I will go to see all the places I want
to -.” (Interview Participant 2)

Despite the respondents’ desire to purchase the various tourist destination products, the changes
in weather patterns have impacted negatively on the decision of the cruise tourist. The
following statements depict a person filled with pessimism, especially while seeking to make
a decision on the possibility of purchasing a destination product.

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 “I knew that I knew I wanted to come to the railway station, the Settlers Museum,
some poles and the art gallery, perhaps, were things that I thought I might like,
yeah.” (Interview Participant 2)

“Port Chalmers, oh, we are satisfied, the weather is not good today and we are not
on the rush and let the rush go first. And then we come along, because we weren't
in a real great hurry.” (Interview Participant 1)

“But maybe just, a bottle of water, or some food, so something like that especially
for very bad weather like today.” (Interview Participant 4)

Satisfaction among consumers is an aspect that encourages such individuals to repurchase a

destination product, especially after the initial purchase. Such satisfaction is achieved when the
performance of a product or service meets the expectation and the needs of a consumer as
witnessed in this case (Becken, 2010). Despite the bad weather, the majority of the cruise
passengers remained content with the outcome and wished to stay put until the weather changed.

Holiday satisfaction seems to be an important concept that is prone to weather changes. Indeed,
the cruise passengers’ decision-making activity depends to a large extent on the weather and
climatic conditions of a destination (Becken, 2010). This author acknowledges the fact that
warm weather often promotes tourism, an issue that is supported by the high number of tourist
visits and spending during the summer holidays. The extent of weather variability on the
decision-making process of tourists is vivid in the successful operation of businesses during
different seasons and vice versa (Becken, 2010).

Even though some tourists consider the weather has little impact on their overall satisfaction
with activities at the port due to lack of control, there are several accounts of dissatisfaction.
One respondent expressed dissatisfaction with a tourism destination based on the unfavourable
weather on the vacation day. He notes “No, not really, we decide not going to the town as the
weather is not good, so we just walk around the port.” (Interview Participant 4).

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The feelings of this respondent among other participants in this study are shared by findings of
previous empirical studies on consumer behaviour in the tourism industry (Xie, Kerstetter, &
Mattila, 2012). According to Xie, Kerstetter, and Mattila, (2012), weather plays a critical role
in influencing the decisions of tourists, particularly on purchase and repurchase phenomena.
Notably, tourists usually prefer vacations during the summer holidays, when the temperatures
are warm and suitable for outdoor activities such as swimming among other activities.
Therefore changes in such weather patterns are like to adversely affect the decision of tourists
to pursue such endeavours (Jacobsen & Munar, 2012; Lindner-Cendrowska & Błażejczyk,
2018).

Although some tourists link weather to the decision-making in reference to a destination

product, others have failed to establish any link. Weather is one of the primary factors that has
a considerable impact on the choice of a destination product (Chua, Lee, Goh, & Han, 2015).
The decision by a tourist to buy a destination product hinges not only on their confidence in
the product but also on inhibitors, including weather patterns (According to Chon, Weaver, &
Kim, 1991). The inhibitors often influence the decisions of tourists in that they change their
perception towards purchasing a destination product, irrespective of their attitude toward the
product.

“Well, only the weather is not good. [laugh] We cannot do anything about it.”
(Interview Participant 1)

“I think it okay, the weather is cold and raining, but this is something you cannot
control. Other than that, I m happy.” (Interview Participant 9)

The tourists expressed varying feelings, emotions and moods with their planned activities
depending on the prevailing weather. For example, they were happy to carry on with certain
activities because the weather was favourable.

The outcome of the interview, particularly with participants 1 and 9 demonstrates a high level
of consumer satisfaction with a destination product. Mainly, the two interviewees were happy
to carry on with certain activities, irrespective of the unfavourable weather. Studies show that
consumers who are satisfied with a product will return or repurchase the product for the

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subsequent time (Buhalis, 2001; Swarbrooke & Horner, 2007). Here, even rain cannot deter
the cruise passengers from pursuing their tourism endeavours.

A similar expression was witnessed in other participants, who noted that

“Well, we managed to go to the castle and got a bit wet there, but that is okay.”
(Interview Participant 26)

Respondent 27 acknowledged the weather was beautiful, even though rain and cold may be
scary to fellow tourists. He states that: “This sort of weather suits me beautifully. I'm very
comfortable with this weather. I hate the heat.” (Interview Participant 27) This excerpt was
chosen to demonstrate the variations in feelings and emotions of different consumers,
especially regarding the weather as a key attribute in decision-making in the cruise tourism
sector.

These excerpts were also chosen to show that consumer behaviour may not be as predictable
as anticipated, and may depend on other issues, more than the satisfaction with the initial
purchase. In this case, the cruise passengers were content with the destination product and
would not be distracted by bad weather to call off the planned activity, an issue that may be
attributable to satisfaction.

On the other hand, tourists sometimes express dissatisfaction with bad weather such as cold or
rain, an issue that negatively impacts on their emotions and feelings. As a result, they may
cancel their planned visit to a tourism destination based on the weather variability. Previous
studies have emphasised the importance of weather in influencing the decision-making process
of tourists, including cruise passengers (Xie, Kerstetter, & Mattila, 2012; Jacobsen & Munar,
2012).

Similarly, the vacation tourist behaviour model acknowledges such importance of the weather
in influencing decisions of individuals, although it falls short of discussing it comprehensively.
Instead, the model classifies the attribute of weather under the choice criteria, noting that it is
one of the compulsory factors considered by tourists while making vital decisions at tourism
destinations (Moutinho, 2000; Moutinho, 1987).

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 “We found information about the train station, we thought that might be interesting,
so, yeah. But later we found the weather is not good and it’s heavy rain outside and
windy, so, we just stay on the ship and till now, we were thinking yeah, we can walk
around now.” (Interview Participant 16)

Like participant 16’s note, weather is one of these aspects and variations often change the
feelings and emotions, particularly with their planned travel. As highlighted in this study,
customers may be happy to proceed with their travels when the weather is favourable but
changes in weather patterns like rain, cold and wind may lead to cancellations, therefore a
disappointment.

4.5 The level of expertise and experience in decision-making

Knowledge also plays a crucial role in decision-making among travellers regarding destination
activity choices. In this study, most of the interviews acknowledged the significance of
knowledge and familiarity with the tourism destination in influencing the tourist decision-
making endeavour. Notably, most of the respondents noted that tourists who experienced
positive attributes of a destination are likely to return to the place or refer friends and family.
Some tourists suggest that familiarity in engaging in certain activities enhances their choice to
a certain level. Based on previous experiences, tourists who are familiar with the destination
or have been through the decision-making process before find it easy and are more confident
when making choices. In such cases, they depend highly on the information that they have to
make their decisions.

“Normally, I do it a long time beforehand. Normally, it sounds a little bit crazy but,
we do some, we always do some.” (Interview Participant 14)

“Well, sometimes we do and especially if it is the places we have been before. But
since we have never been here, we wanna make the most of our time. So, we did a
lot of researching and filled our days based on them.” (Interview Participant 18)

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These two interview excerpts (with interview participants 14 and 18) were chosen to
demonstrate how cruise passengers among other consumers in the tourism industry make
repurchase decisions based on their previous experience and knowledge of the destination
product. As noted above, they disregard other equally important factors such as weather or
price but assess the destination purely based on past experience. Considering the previous
experience and knowledge regarding particular activities at the destination, the tourists do not
find it necessary to rely on cruise ship guides in selecting activities.

The degree of confidence displayed by some tourists when making decisions on the
appropriateness of the activities that they choose is related to their level of familiarity and
expertise. The outcome of the above interview coincides with several empirical studies that
have often associated decision-making as an aspect of consumer behaviour with their previous
experience (Xie, Kerstetter, and Mattila, 2012). For instance, if the experience of a consumer
is positive, especially regarding a destination product, they are likely to return or repurchase
the product on their subsequent visit and vice versa (Decrop & Snelders, 2004).

The return consumers often make their decisions based on the prior knowledge or experience
they have had using or consuming a product or service. The phenomenon is not exceptional
while assessing the behaviour of cruise passengers among other consumers in the tourism
industry.

“Based on recommendations and based on our own experience of what certain

things should be.” (Interview Participant 17)

This interview excerpt reinforces the previous explanations that link past experience and
knowledge to decision-making in the tourism sector, including the cruise tourism segment
(Thyne, Henry & Lloyd, 2015). The aspect of recommendation is also essential in making
certain destination decisions as highlighted by the respondent above. Recently,
recommendation systems have been the focus in the tourism sector, attributed in part to
increased influence of internet use in the tourism industry (Kabassi, 2010). The advent of such
technology has enabled tourists to search for information online on destinations, an issue aided
in large part by the recommendations posted by the previous consumers (Kabassi, 2010).

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The findings of this study conform to the previous findings, in which past experiences had a
considerable influence on the decision-making activity of the tourists, particularly on where to
visit. The degree of confidence displayed by some tourists when making decisions on the
appropriateness of the activities that they choose is related to their level of familiarity and
expertise (Decrop, & Snelders, 2014). However, the cruise industry often presents a unique
aspect as tour guides take much control of the decision-making, particularly while guiding
tourists during visits. In this respect, it is justified to embrace a different approach while
ascertaining the factors influencing decision-making in the cruise tourism segment as
mentioned earlier in this article. According to Jacobsen and Munar (2012), tourists’ own
experience is pivotal in helping them to make the decision at a tourist destination.

4.6 Psychological Perception of External Stimuli in Decision-

Making

The study was also concerned with evaluating the psychological perception of external stimuli
in decision-making among travellers. Hyun and Han (2015) and Han et al. (2018) contend that
the external stimuli are not only from Internet but also from information provided by cruise
companies, like flyers, as well as by destination information centres, called iSite in New
Zealand. The respondents were required to give information on their sources of information
and how it affected their perception during decision-making. In this case, the interviews
showed that the consumers search information over the internet and this influences their
decision-making. According to Li and Kwortnik (2017) and Han, Hwang, Lee, and Kim (2019),
when asked why they search the information, they added that such information helps them
understand what they should expect to see, what is available around this area, and the cheapest
options that they could select. Therefore, the information that they get through the internet
determines their psychological perception towards the destination. The external stimuli, in this
case, are the internet and information available on the internet.

For example, this respondent has given the following response:

“Yeah, had a bit of search on the internet, work out what to see what is available
to see around the place, and what is the cheapest option to do rather than, buy a

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 cruise offer on the ship, buy a tour off the ship. Then we book.” (Interview
Participant 1)

The majority of responses Show that the Internet and information available on the Internet
influence decision-making among clients in the cruise industry. As such, negative information
can hinder clients from visiting a certain destination due to discouragement. On the other hand,
positive information such as positive reviews can encourage them to visit a particular
destination. Such destinations should thus work towards customer satisfaction so as to receive
positive ratings and recommendations from users.

It is also very interesting to know whether the travellers conduct the Google search on the
internet before arriving at the destination or after they arrive. Jin, Lee, and Lee (2015) ascertain
that this was important because it would help in understanding when external stimuli are more
likely to influence decision-making among travellers. The findings showed that such travellers
get such information even before arriving at the destination. Although they cannot revert their
journey, the information helps in shaping the overall perception that they have towards the
destination. It also helps them in preparing for the weather and other conditions.

For example, participant 5 stated that:

“They actually give us some information the night before we arrive Dunedin. But
the weather is not good, so.” (Interview Participant 5)

It is evident that different factors come into play when decision-making is involved. For
instance, travelling can be hindered by poor weather. Further, the information received and the
manner through which it is received also determines whether or not clients can use a certain
destination.

“Generally on the internet. Holland America offers to us, but they are very
expensive. So we like to pick them up when we get to our port- Where we want to
go, we sort of, vaguely know what we want to do, and it is just the matter of finding
a local one, rather than booking it on the ship. Because they charge more to do the
same thing.” (Interview Participant 10)

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Regarding the same, another respondent gave the following response:
“We watched a bunch of documentaries on TV and we got some travel books and
talked to our friends who have been here and the internet.” (Interview Participant
13)

From this, it is evident that the travellers get information on the intended destination from
their friends and family who have been there before. As such, customer satisfaction is
important as it determines the word-of-mouth that goes around concerning a particular
destination. Further, destinations should also seek to have adequate online information on
their services to enable interested parties to access such information. Also, this response
implies that clients normally conduct in-depth research on a destination before travelling.
For instance, they buy books and watch documentaries so as to get more knowledge on
the destination. It is advisable that businesses produce their own documentaries aimed at
marketing their services. They should also feed the clients with positive information about
their services so as to attract as many of them as possible.

Similarly, other participants gave similar responses when asked to describe how they got
information on different destinations. They were also required to mention whether or not they
liked the areas they visited after getting information from the Internet, family, friends, and
Information Centre (iSite).

For example, participant 28 stated that:

“Well, I usually research before I leave but to some degree and then, before I get
in the port they give you little information about each place and that kind of thing
and I look at those flyers.” (Interview Participant 28)

Also, participant 29 said that:

“It was more helpful in the information centre. They are a lot better, lot more
information there. And gave us a map and showed us on the map where things were
on that, where they could not do that at the port.” (Interview Participant 29)

Furthermore, participant 30 stated that:

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 “Well, we have an itinerary on the- on the ship, and, each day, you know, the
different activities are listed – so we choose whatever is suitable for us.” (Interview
Participant 30)

Further, the fact that the client bought Wi-Fi on-board but could still not decide on what they
would do shows the height of indecisiveness among the customers. Most of them have the right
sources of information, but they still face challenges in extracting information from them. This
creates another opportunity that businesses in the cruise sector could exploit. The businesses
should ensure that they advise and guide the travellers accordingly in regard to activities in
which they could engage once they reach the destination.

4.7 Cruise Tourists’ Feedback on Third-party Website

The analysis also focused on the feedback that the customers gave regarding their experience.
This was important because it was considered when developing the conceptual model. From
the websites (LeisureTour; CruiseCritic; TripAdvisor (Appendix 3)), it is evident that the
customers were satisfied with the services provided by the business. One of the customers gave
the feedback that the trip was great and they would highly recommend it. The travellers were
picked up at the cruise terminal at Port Chambers and did the outward journey by bus, enjoying
the beautiful views. The traveller also noted that the driver had a thorough understanding of
local routes, and they managed to return to the boat with plenty of time to spare. As such, the
new model takes note of the importance of customer satisfaction on positive word-of-mouth;
such feedback can also influence other interested travellers, and this also explains how friends
and relatives influence consumer decision-making in the cruise sector.

The sentiments of the first traveller were echoed by those of the second, who argued that the
trip was much better than they expected. The driver also helped them in addressing some
challenges that they faced with their booking and also ensured that they got to the plane safely.
After the trip, they were also taken on an extensive city tour. This traveller had also enjoyed
the services offered by the cruise company. This was also important in informing the

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framework, as it shows the importance of customer satisfaction on decision-making among
customers in the sector.

Further, it was evident that various factors attracted and/or satisfied customers during their
cruise with the company. As such, the travellers gave positive feedback about the company on
its redundant website (see Appendix 3 for cruise tourists’ feedback regarding their day in
Dunedin).

From the websites, it is evident that travellers are satisfied with the services offered by a cruise
company if the expectations of the clients are met. The feedback shows that different factors
enticed travellers. For instance, whereas some were satisfied by the quality of customer services,
others enjoyed the flexibility, affordability, and word-of-mouth from close friends and relatives
on the level of consumer satisfaction of the company.

4.8 Chapter Summary

This chapter on results and discussions presents the outcome of the study on the factors
influencing the passengers’ decision-making at a cruise vacation. The researcher has divided
the findings into themes and pursued thematic analysis. These themes included: psychological
of time, weather variability, the level of expertise and familiarity, price perspective, and
psychological perception of external stimuli in decision-making.

Having created categories that are rich in meaning, the researcher suggested four themes that
answered the research questions as they represented the factors that affected tourist decision-
making when they arrived at the destination. Table 4 is an example of how the codes were
developed into themes. As found by the researcher, time was a major factor considered by
tourists in decision-making, and this is evidenced by the time-related topics selected during the
coding process. Weather is also identified as an integral part of tourism decision-making. The
prevailing weather at the destination port affects the tourists’ experience and activities during
their holiday.

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Nevertheless, tourists have no control over the weather. This means that they have to deal with
weather patterns as they come during their stay at the port. Tourists also desire to reduce costs
while travelling, thereby making the price a vital construct in decision-making. Another theme
identified in the research is familiarity and expertise that in turn affects judgment and decision-
making. In this regard, some of the decisions made by tourists regarding the activities to engage
in on the day they arrive at the destination are as a result of cognitive shortcuts provoked by
previous experiences. Finally, the expectations of cruise passengers is a crucial determinant of
their satisfaction levels and hence may influence their consideration of similar and other
activities in the future.

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Chapter Five: Conclusion and
Implications

Globalisation has had a profound influence on the tourism industry thereby making it one of
the most lucrative economic sectors in the globe. Tourists’ move from one region to another
with diverse expectations and intentions including leisure and work. The cruise industry has
become predominant due to the ambience that the environment creates and the wide array of
expeditions that tourists experience while on the luxury ships. Therefore, the central goal of
the research was to develop a model to investigate and discover the factors that influence the
decision-making process of the activities that cruise passengers undertake at a tourism
destination. The study established that consumer decision-making behaviour and processes in
the cruise tourism industry is influenced by various factors with the most predominant
influences being the weather and climatic conditions of the destinations being visited, the price,
time, and familiarity and experiences of the tourists. Consequently, previous scholars focused
on the examination of tourism decision-making processes using various models. However, the
efficacy of the theoretical frameworks and models was questionable due to the difficulty in
predicting the determinants of the decision-making process. The conclusion chapter is
comprised of four distinct segments that include the research conclusion and contribution,
implications of the study, limitations and opportunity for future research, and the chapter
summary.

5.1 Research Conclusion and Contribution

5.1.1 Research Conclusion

The report is organised into five distinct chapters with each section providing different pieces
of information regarding the research. Chapter 1 of the dissertation is the introductory section
that presents the idea, the problem to be solved by the study, the significance and rationale for
conducting the research, research questions and objectives, and the scope of the study. Chapter

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2 presented the literature that was examined to determine the thoughts of other scholars on the
dynamics and trends of the cruise industry. The main concepts that were explored under this
chapter include the overview of the cruise industry, cruise tourism, destination tourism and
cruise tourism decisions. The conceptual framework that guided the entire study was developed
from the literature review with the research questions being presented at the end of the chapter.

The methods and approaches adopted for the study were presented in the third chapter. Chapter
three began with the evaluation of the research methods and paradigms that were used in the
study. Data collection procedures and techniques were then presented. The other concepts that
were presented were then presented, as well as data analysis procedures, measures to enhance
reliability and validity, limitations of the methodology and the various ethical considerations
for the research. The significance of chapter three is that it was the backbone of the study as it
described all the processes of acquiring and processing data from the respondents procedurally.

The fourth chapter expressed the findings derived from the participants and discussed the
results in light of the research questions and objectives. The chapter described the themes that
were manifest in the study (psychological perception of time in decision-making, price
perspectives in decision-making, weather variability in decision-making, the level of expertise
and experience in decision-making, and psychological perception of external stimuli in
decision-making) and explained their meanings by connecting them to the developed
conceptual framework.

The study emphasised the evaluation of the research question: “What are the factors that
influence cruise passengers’ activity decision-making at a tourism destination?”
Additionally, the study focused on investigating the different changes that influence vacational
tourist behaviour in addition to the examination of the impact of tourist expectations on the
decision-making process. Previous pieces of literature were examined as presented in chapter
two that provided an in-depth understanding of the different dynamics and concepts of cruise
tourism and decision-making. Moreover, various scholars presented models that had multiple
components to aid in the explanation of the factors that have an immense influence on the
decision-making process regarding the activities that tourists will pursue in their various
destinations. The central gap in the explored studies was the failure of the presented models to
the cruise tourism industry. The models were too complicated to predict due to the high number

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of inputs and the inability of the chosen research methods to fit into the theoretical frameworks.
Therefore, the study adopted qualitative research that focused on gathering the thoughts and
opinions of the respondents who were major stakeholders in the cruise tourism sector (cruise
passengers) on the factors that influenced the process of making decisions.

The study established that the experiences of cruise tourists can be captured through ratings,
reviews and other feedback mechanisms. Tourists who are familiar with a cruise ship have an
excellent perception of the activities that they can pursue on board. The familiarity and
expertise of the individuals further allow them to select the most appropriate packages that will
enable them to fulfil their travel desires. The study successfully established that the price is one
of the essential factors that determines the decisions that consumers make regarding the
activities that they engage in during a cruise tour at a cruise destination. The first mode of
pricing was the packages offered by the host or the cruise ship. The research discovered that a
significant percentage of the tourists preferred packages that were priced within their means.
The behaviour of tourists was further examined in light of the vacation tourist behaviour that
states that the choice of purchasing a given product can only be reached after an extensive
decision-making process that evaluates prices and individual abilities of the persons purchasing
the service or goods. The research established that there exist distinctive types of motivations
that include general and specific motivations. General motivations are extrinsic and short-lived
as an individual may not hold them throughout the holiday while specific motivations have a
solid connection and relationship to the advertisements made by the tourist firms, information
from mass media and other travel intermediaries, reports and the pieces of advice from friends,
personal experience, and the knowledge held by the tourists themselves.

5.1.2 Research Contribution

The contribution of the study is that it presents a straightforward model that can be used in
exploring the behavioural patterns and the decision-making processes of cruise passengers and
tourists. The intercept interviews conducted in this study form the basis for the development of
the conceptual model on cruise passenger behaviour. This provides a summary of the factors
influencing the behaviour of tourists, particularly cruise passengers at a destination. The

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foundations of the model emanate from the application of a basic complex decision-making
model. The developed model (Figure 6 shown below) was concise and provided a summary of
factors that influenced the behaviours and decision-making process of cruise tourists on the
day of their arrival at a destination. The significance of the model is that it presents five
components that facilitate the process of predicting decision-making and tourist behaviour. The
study adopted thematic analysis to evaluate the responses of the participants and found five
themes that were consistent with the factors or components presented in the conceptual model
of the study thereby demonstrating that past pieces of literature made a substantial contribution
to the research.

Figure 6. Conceptual Model for Factors that Influence Tourists’ Activity Decision-Making

(Source: developed by the author for this research)

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The first component was the perception of time by the tourist that encompassed the duration
that was available for the cruise tourists to engage in activities such as playing and interacting.
The time constant was highly significant in making cruise activity decisions as most tourists
prefer vacations whereby they would have sufficient time to engage in activities that they enjoy.
The rationale for taking holidays and the choice of cruise ships is to interact and engage in
attractive activities as demonstrated by the findings. Therefore, different tourists had varying
motivations to go on a cruise holiday. The study established that there exist distinct types of
motivations that include general and specific motivations. General motivations are extrinsic
and short-lived as an individual may not hold them throughout the holiday while specific
motivations have a solid connection and relationship to the advertisements made by the tourist
firms, information from mass media and other travel intermediaries, reports and advice from
friends, personal experience, and the knowledge held by the tourists themselves. Another vital
element of time in the model is learning whereby tourists time their vacations on a cruise ship
after they gather knowledge relating to the available offers and the appropriateness of their
desired tourist destination. The satisfaction and pleasure derived from tourism may vary from
relaxation to enjoyment and freedom from a work environment. The study found that such
desires vary from one tourist to another. Consequently, all consumers have their pre-set criteria
that they use in the evaluation of the different factors before determining the activities that they
will participate in while on the cruise ship vacation.

The second component or factor that was found to have an immense influence on the cruise
decision-making process hinges on the activities that the tourist would pursue while on the
vacation is the familiarity and expertise. The study establishes that the experiences of cruise
tourists can be captured through ratings, reviews and other feedback mechanisms. Tourists who
are familiar with a cruise ship have an excellent perception of the activities that they can pursue
on board. The familiarity and expertise of the individuals further allow them to select the most
appropriate packages that will enable them to fulfil their travel desires. The conceptual model
connects the experience of other persons to the familiarity and expertise of the tourist.
Individual tourists have a typical and common behaviour whereby they use the opinions and
experiences of other people to gauge whether or not a tourist destination suit them best.
Therefore, a majority of tourist firms and marketing agencies strive to maintain their reviews
as high as possible to influence the decisions and choices of more customers. The revenues that
are derived from cruise ships are determined by the nature of experiences of both past and

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present consumers which further determine the number of sites and destinations that most
consumers prefer. The marketing strategies adopted by the cruise shipshape the customers’ first
experiences and expectations that will contribute to consumer loyalty. However, the ability of
the contribution of feedback mechanisms in elevating the experiences of tourists at the port of
call remains a mystery.

The study successfully answered the central research question by establishing that the pricing
of the holiday packages is an essential factor that determines the decisions that consumers make
regarding the activities that they engage in during a cruise tour. The first mode of pricing was
the packages offered by the company or the cruise ship. The research discovered that a
significant percentage of the tourists preferred packages that were priced within their means.
The behaviour of tourists was further examined in light of the vacation tourist behaviour that
states that the choice of purchasing a given product can only be reached after an extensive
decision-making process that evaluates prices and individual abilities of the persons purchasing
the service or goods. The second element of pricing is the tourists’ savings that makes them
able to purchase a given service or goods. The research found that tourists may purchase a
product not based on the price but the value that it provides to the user. The service obtained
in a cruise ship is intangible in that it is capable of meeting the desires of the users.
Consequently, consumers save their income to ensure that they access superlative services in
their vacations. The pricing of the products and services are determined by the motivations of
the customers or tourists, their cognition and the tips that they learn from their friends and other
avenues. The research found that price decisions are one of the important factors of cruise
decision-making.

The fourth component of the study was the marketing communication. The developed
conceptual model suggests that communication is central to the marketing of cruise products
and services. Decision-making is influenced by conscious and unconscious memories of the
consumers. Therefore, marketers and marketing agencies focus their campaigns on reinforcing
positive experiences in the memories of the consumers and motivating them to engage
constructively in the process of referring to other potential tourists.

The final factor that influences the decision-making process on the activity that a cruise tourist
should take is the weather and climatic conditions at the time of the vacation. The respondents

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stressed that weather-related factors have impacted their decisions on multiple occasions
thereby making travel more suitable during specific seasons of the year. Summer-time has
some ambience and predictable weather conditions that may not disrupt the activities of a cruise
tourist. However, the other seasons of the year are characterised by uncertain climatic events
that may disrupt vacations. Therefore, some cruise passengers cancel their itinerary and
visitations during adverse weather at the destination.

Decision-making processes were also found to be linked to other factors such as consumers’
expectations. The rise in the number of digital technologies has presented the opportunity for
individuals to explore travel destinations via the web and create mental pictures of the activities
that they can engage in while touring a given destination. Consumers have a likelihood of
returning to a destination or repurchasing a given product whenever they feel that their
expectations have been met. However, tourists give cruises and destinations a poor rating if the
expectations are not met or whenever they feel that the marketers exaggerated the services
available on the cruise. The research also discovered that customers or cruise passengers
consider all the pieces of information that they gather from various sources into their visitation
plan and the decision-making process.

The five themes of the research that generated the components of the model were linked by
other factors that relate to price, marketing communication, weather, time or timing and
familiarity and expertise. The first phase in making a decision was the consideration of the five
factors. Cruise tourists gauge the prices given to them by the cruise ship marketers, the
information that they gather from various quotas, the best timing of their cruise, prevailing
weather conditions, and their familiarity with the destinations to determine whether or not they
will purchase a specific package. The second stage of making a choice is pre-decision where
all the factors are weighed to determine if the set criteria have been achieved. The third and
most significant stage of the process is reaching an ultimate decision that is characterised by
the purchase of an appropriate package. The decision stage is on most occasions irreversible
due to the adverse financial implications of cancellation. The fourth stage is post decision-
making and involves the consumption of the purchased product or service. The study found
that tourists board a specific cruise ship with the expectation that their desires will be met and
gather diverse experiences that may influence their future decisions. The second last stage of
the decision-making phase that mainly guides other choices is post-purchase evaluation. The

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evaluation involves the provision of ratings and reviews of their trip and activities that they
pursued while on the cruise ships or at the tourist destination. Reviews and ratings act as
feedback that informs future marketing communications. Poor reviews tarnish the name and
reputation of the service provider. Consequently, the cruise ship owners and management focus
on providing an exemplary service that would attract positive reviews.

The conceptual model is efficient in expressing the five components as factors that influence
decisions made regarding the activities to be undertaken when passengers are off the cruise
ship at port of call. The theoretical framework would have a higher predictor value if only three
components were adopted and used (timing/time of the trip, price of the packages, and
prevailing weather conditions). Gigerenzer and Brighton (2009) claim that a low number of
components generates the highest predictions in homo heuristics. It also presents the concept
of “less-is-more” (p.110) that suggests that the highest levels of accuracy can only have
achieved whenever a conceptual framework has fewer components. The price of the trip and
associated packages had the highest predictor value as the package could be tested among
different populations. Different cruises have various values that can either encourage
individuals to purchase the services and products and plan for the intended activities or
encourage them altogether. Appendix 3 demonstrates a review that was liked by five
individuals. The reviewer states that their trip was great and that they were picked up at the
cruise terminal by bus. The return transfers were also excellent due to the presence of a well-
trained and knowledgeable driver. The pricing of such a trip will most likely be higher than
other tours with zero transfers to and from the port terminal. The same element of pricing is
evident in tours by other means of transport such as road and air.

Weather conditions are also important predictors of the decisions made with a value that is
higher than marketing communication, familiarity and expertise, and time/timing of the trip.
Regardless of the nature of the population, unpredictable weather conditions may disrupt the
activities that individuals had planned for, detracting from the cruise. Therefore, climatic and
weather conditions have a high predictor value of the decision-making process of cruise tourists
on the activities that they should embrace while at their cruise destination.

The factor or component ‘time’ emerged as one of the important influencers of the consumer
decision-making process. According to Willison (2017), different cruise vacations are

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scheduled for various times of the year. Tourists also have varying motivations for their trips
on a cruise ship. The time that the individuals spend on the ship determines the most suitable
activities that they can undertake while on the tour. Additionally, time is a component with a
high predictive value as it shapes the itinerary of the cruise company, staff, and passengers. In
summary, the study established that the primary factors that influence tourists’ processes of
making decisions regarding the activities on a cruise ship include time, price, marketing
communication, familiarity and expertise, and the weather conditions at the time of the tour.
However, based on the assertions of Gigerenzer and Brighton (2009) that “less-is-more-effect”
(p.110), the developed model finds time, pricing, and weather conditions have the highest
predictive value band more applications in cruise tourism compare with other domains of
tourism.

5.2 Implications of the Study

The study is highly significant as it contributes to both theoretical and managerial approaches
through the development of a comprehensive model that entails the core factors that predict the
behavioural preferences and decision-making process of cruise tourists. Cruise tourism is a
complex sector with unmatched expectations. Unlike other everyday activities that
conventional tourists pursue, the small environment on a cruise ship is a major limiting factor
and restrains the choices that tourists can make. Cruise companies also control the time that
can spend at the place within these environments thereby making the tourists have the choice
of estimate activities. Therefore, the primary implication of the study is that it highlights the
various determinants of cruise-ship activities that a passenger will most likely adopt or choose.
Additionally, the presented model provides a comprehensive description of the various ways
in which cruise management can understand the dynamics of consumer decision-making.

Moreover, the study also has significant implications for management due to its contribution
to the understanding of the role of consumer experience in shaping the preferences of the
customers. The study developed a conceptual model that all the five factors that influence the
decisions made on cruise ships regarding the activities to pursue are based on the concept of
information processing. Marketing communication is based on the satisfactory experiences of

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past customers to recommend the most appropriate activities that passengers may undertake in
their upcoming trip. The timing of the trip is also based on past experiences as the study
established that summer is the most appropriate time that individuals can engage in various
activities while on a cruise ship.

The final implication of the study is the developed model is that it examines the concept of
consumer behaviour by incorporating the element of homo-heuristics. Heuristics is the
cognitive bias of the consumer whereby they depend on small pieces of information to decide
on a product or service that they will purchase. Homo heuristics focuses on the vision of human
nature and their tendency to use a small amount of information to make massive decisions that
may influence their preferences, attitudes and traits. The model is applicable not only in the
cruise industry but also in other sectors of tourism where consumers are obliged to make
meaningful decisions on the activities that they will undertake on the tour after arriving at the
vacation destination.

The developed model and the entire research has an immense contribution make to theoretical
development as it presents five components that define consumer decision-making processes.
The behaviour of tourists can be comprehensively understood using this model. However, the
application of the conceptual framework in the traditional cruise set-up where the managers
and other experts are in charge of all the activities that take place may be scanty. The model
successfully closes the loopholes that are present in its predecessors as it focuses specifically
on the cruise industry. Scholars in the field of tourism and specifically the cruise industry can
employ the model in developing other theoretical models that explain the dynamics of customer
decisions and behaviour while off the ship.

5.3 Limitations and Opportunities for Future Research

Despite the study’s ability to achieve its goals and objectives using the identified sample, the
central limitation of the study was the adopted methodology. The predictor value of the model
would have been higher if a quantitative approach was used in defining the various factors that
influence the decision-making process among cruise passengers. The second limitation was the

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use of interviews that were time-consuming and involved multiple resources. The research
focused on the New Zealand cruise industry and gathered the thoughts and opinions of different
individuals as shown in table 2 in chapter 3. Interviews were prone to bias that may have
influenced the reliability and validity of the study. The final limitation of the study was the use
of multiple components in the developed models with some having a low predictor value. A
simpler model could have been developed using more components to enhance the scholarly
understanding of its implications to both theory and practice. However, simplicity has its
disadvantages with the central demerit being that the scope of its application may be narrow.
Therefore, the model would have performed best as a predictor if it had fewer components
(time of the trip, price of the packages, and prevailing weather conditions) that would have
increased its predictive value. The limitations were eliminated by exploring all the five factors
independently to provide an understanding of how each of the components affects the central
research questions and objectives.

Future studies should place emphasis on improving the model by focusing on the three
identified components out of the five factors (time of the trip, price of the packages, and
prevailing weather conditions). The second recommendation for future research is that they
should expand their scope and explain the applications of the developed model to other sectors
of tourism. The cruise industry is rapidly evolving due to the dynamic transformation in
technology and international relations. However, a small percentage of tourists prefer cruise
vacations to other types of tours thereby limiting the scope of this study. The incorporation of
the model to other sectors will aid in the identification of whether or not the model is applicable
in decision-making in other tourism scenarios. The final recommendation for future research
is that they should explore the concept of customer experience and its influence on decision-
making and consumer preferences and behaviour. The study established that all the other
models were based on the concept of user experience. Therefore, the ability of the cruise ship
to elicit satisfaction among the users will influence the decisions made by other consumers
regarding the most appropriate activities to pursue while on vacation.

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 5.4 Chapter Summary

This chapter provides an extensive conclusion of the research that aimed at developing a model
to investigate and discover the factors that influence the decision-making process regarding the
activities that cruise passengers undertake at a tourism destination. The section successfully
concludes the paper by providing an overview of the preceding chapters, the findings in light
of the research questions, the contribution of the research and the implications of the study.
Despite the numerous attempts to attain perfection, the study had some limitations that are
discussed in this chapter as well as the opportunities for future research.

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Appendices
Appendix One – Interview Protocol

Purpose of the protocol: To make explicit the procedures of data collection.

Research questions: What are the factors that influence cruise passenger’s activity decision-
making at the tourism destination?
Goal: Identify and understand the factors that can influence the cruise passenger’s decision-
making in a specific tourism destination.

Data collection procedures for intercept interviews

Site: Dunedin railway station & Port Chalmers
Time: February 2019 to April 2019 during the cruise season.
Respondents were picked randomly in Dunedin railway station and Port Chalmers (Cruise
tourists’ way back to the ship).

Questions:
How was your day?
What brings you to this cruise ship to travel to New Zealand?
When do you start searching for information about the destinations?
What kind of information you are looking for?
Did you make any decisions after searching for the information?
If yes, Could you please explain why you are making decisions early and how did you decide
that?
If no, Could you please explain why and when you are making decisions for what you are going
to do on the day of arrival? How did you decide that?
Could you please describe your overall experience in Dunedin?

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Appendix Two – University of Otago Human Ethics Committee

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Appendix Three - Cruise Tourists’ Feedback Regarding their Day in
Dunedin

(Source: LeisureTour, 2019)

(Source: LeisureTours, 2019)

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(Source: Cruise critic, 2019)

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(Source: CruiseCritic, 2019)

(Source: TripAdvisor, 2019)

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