Segmenting cruise passengers from the experiential marketing perspective: An explorative study

In the cruise industry, there has recently been a considerable increase of interest in managing the on-board servicescape by recognizing the physical environment as an important driver of competitive advantage to provide a memorable tourism experience. However, few studies have focused on this issue in the specific context of the cruise industry, and even fewer studies have used this dimension as basis for clustering passengers. Adopting an experiential marketing approach, the aim of this study was to profile cruise passengers based on their perceived on-board servicescape and experience. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis were applied to data from a sample of 417 cruise passengers interviewed in 2017 at the port of call of Naples (Italy). The EFA revealed interesting insights by disconfirming the existing literature through the identification of new latent subfactors. Four clusters profiling interesting passenger types that are useful for customizing the on-board experience were identified. Moreover, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to determine whether the different types of cruisers in their response to behavioral intentions (i.e. WOM and e-WOM). The empirical findings enrich the existing literature on the cruise experience by introducing an original model of segmentation; they provide some practical insights for cruise managers to develop customized on-board service offerings. Finally, research opportunities based on these findings are also discussed.