Evaluation of Tourist Satisfaction with Cruise Homeport:An Empirical Study on Shanghai
The cruise industry has become one of the most rapidly developing segments in the entire tourism market. On a global basis, although the cruising sector is overwhelmed by North America and Europe, the Asia Pacific Region has reported exciting growth rates in recent years. As the core component of the Asian market, China is undergoing rapid development in terms of both infrastructure construction and cruise ship reception. A cruise port system has been established along Chinese coastline. In recent years, as the most developed cruise city in mainland of China, Shanghai is experiencing a fast developing phase with two outstanding cruise ports/terminals, the Shanghai Port International Cruise Terminal and the Wusongkou International Cruise Port, among which Wusongkou has the strongest berthing capacity for cruise ships in Asia Pacific Region, sending more than 986,000 homeport cruisers outside China in 2015. For a cruise homeport where infrastructure con-struction has been completed, it's critical to continuously attract cruisers to visit through high level of service quality and tourist satisfaction. To do this, the key is to establish a comprehensive homeport satisfaction index system, identify expected satisfaction gap for each criteria, and then propose managerial strategies for improv-ing tourist satisfaction. The purpose of this article is to evaluate cruiser satisfaction with cruise homeport, through an empirical study on Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port. Firstly, we identified a home-port satisfaction index system including 27 criterion based on a broad literature review along with two brain-storming sessions. Then, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to more than 300 cruisers embarking on Shanghai. Based on collected data, we use a multiple criteria decision making method to evaluate and identi-fy the gaps between each criteria and relevant aspired level. Our results show that homeport criterion with low-er expected satisfaction level include internet service/WIFI, shopping/duty free shops, clearance/security check efficiency, currency exchange, children area, embarkation, seating room, parking lot, separation of passengers and vehicles, check in experience/welcome reception, post office/toilet/pubic phone, disembarkation, passen-ger transport (public and shuttle), etc. Finally, we proposed some managerial implications for Wusongkou to become a satisfied cruise homeport, including: 1) Improve network and information services; 2) Enhance val-ue-added services in the port; 3) Establish a duty-free shopping area based on the Shanghai Free Trade Zone policies; 4) Focus on family travel groups, increase children's service facilities; 5) Improve efficiency of cus-toms clearance and security check; 6) Optimize parking lot area and public transportation service; 7) Continue to strengthen safety and security measures. Generally speaking, results of this study could also contribute to de-velopment of other cruise ports in China.
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
维普
