Investigating the impact of onboard and onshore cruise attributes to consumer purchase of cruise holidays in Lake Saimaa

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Volume Title

School of Business | Bachelor's thesis

Date

2020

Department

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

(Mikkeli) Bachelor’s Program in International Business

Language

en

Pages

61 + 8

Series

Abstract

Objectives The main objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of onboard and onshore attributes of river cruises to purchase intention of a cruise holiday. In addition, the study explored whether past experience with cruises or identifying oneself as ecotourist affects the importance attached to different cruise attributes. Summary This thesis focuses on finding out which cruise attributes are the most important ones when potential consumers are considering purchasing a cruise holiday. A conceptual framework was developed to explore the effects of cruise attributes to purchase decision and then operationalized with an online survey. Conclusions In the context of river cruises, consumers value onshore attributes to be more important than in the context of ocean cruises. Furthermore, the valuation of attribute importance is positively correlated to purchase intention. The findings also show that some consumer characteristics, such as past experience with cruises and identifying oneself as ecotourist, affect the importance attached to certain cruise attributes. Overall, the results show the necessity of segmenting markets and provides cruise marketers with information on what attributes to highlight in their marketing.

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Thesis advisor

Singh, Jaywant

Keywords

cruise tourism, decision making, cruise attributes, purchase intention, river cruises, ecotourism, Finland

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