Perfiles de estacionalidad del tráfico de cruceros en regiones europeas como condicionante operativo para navieras y puertos.

Laburpena

The dynamic behavior by the cruise traffic over the last two decades carries a set of challenges for the cruise industry. Among them it is the seasonality of this maritime traffic. This work develops a study of cruise traffic seasonality profiles existing in the Atlantic Ocean area included between the set of Atlantic Islands and the Atlantic coast of Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Cruise lines seek to maximize the exploitation of their ships by repositioning them between destinations regions along the year in order to position vessels where the demand is higher. In this strategy it is necessary to keep in mind the cores element of cruise traffic, its itinerary system. Thus, the positioning of vessels between destination regions according to the year season gives rise to different seasonality profiles. Therefore, seasonality profiles are common for a destination region or sub-region and not for some isolated ports. Seasonality has negative effects for the cruise line-port binomial. In the case of cruise lines, fleet deployment is determined by zones depending on the season of the year. In the case of ports, seasonality affects exploitation of cruise facilities. Specifically, off season will lead to underutilization of port facilities, and the peak season may lead to congestion in port. The aims of this work are (1) to determine seasonality profiles in the maritime area of study, (2) to obtain groups of ports with homogeneous seasonality profiles through the application of cluster techniques, and (3) to propose suggestion to mitigate the negative effects of seasonality in cruise ports. The theme addressed in this paper is associated with cruise traffic as one of the segments with great future prospects in maritime transport, and by extension, in shipbuilding due to the need to expand the fleet of this type of ship to meet the demand. Moreover, it is also associated with the close and unique relationship between cruise lines and ports.