The cruise seasonal factor in the East Coast of the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea

Abstract

The continuous growth of the cruise industry since the beginning of the twenty first century brings with it a series of challenges. Among them is the seasonality of cruise traffic. This study examines the monthly cruise passenger movements’ distribution of a set of ports located in the northeast sector of the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea with the aim of determining the existence of seasonality patterns in the cruise traffic. A database of cruise passengermovements during the period from 2007 to 2018 of 24 ports forms the backbone of the empirical analysis.Specifically, a twofold analysis has been performed. First, the seasonality pattern of each port was determined. Second, a cluster analysis was conducted to classify ports into clusters with homogeneous seasonality patterns. The results identify three different seasonality patterns that are closely related with the geographic position of the ports.Moreover, each port cluster identified is associated with specific roles of the ports that compose it in cruise traffic. The research provides an insight of the complementarity of cruise destination regions in terms of seasonality which is particularly useful for practitioners and researchers of the cruise industry.