Eugenia Riaño

Residents’ attitudes and perceptions towards cruise tourism development: A case study of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)

Cruise tourism is growing faster than any other sector of the tourism industry, producing different impacts on destinations. From the social and economic viewpoint, the interactions between the different actors of the exchange process – cruise passengers, crew, residents, and producers of the tourism products – can bring both positive and negative consequences. The aim of this paper is to analyse how the local population perceives the impacts of cruise tourism and which factors do affect the relationship between impacts and perceptions’ formation. The research involves primary data collection in Cartagena de Indias during the peak of the cruise season in the last trimester of 2009. The number and quality of the 1,004 questionnaires collected allowed us to perform a quantitative analysis of the hosts’ perceptions and attitudes. A cluster analysis demonstrated the existence of four different groups, within which members have common features and similar perceptions and attitudes. In general, it has revealed a positive recognition of the economic impacts of tourism. Also, social and cultural impacts are recognised to be positive, but at a lower degree. In terms of future tourism polices, the different groups identified in the cluster analysis exert different positions.

A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) to Analyse Cruisers’ Expenditure Pattern and Perception in a Port of Call

This study analyses cruise visitors’ perceptions in a port-of-call. The empirical data were collected via a survey in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia) during 2009. A high quality and an original database was obtained for such a niche of economy activity. The novelty of this paper consists of a few methodological enhancements. First, a hierarchical cluster analysis, based on the results of a correspondence analysis and two stopping rules, has robustly demonstrated the existence of six different clusters. Second, a CART is used to identify which variables are better predictors to classify individuals in the different clusters. The empirical findings imply several policy directions for each of the clusters. Specifically, institutions intervention should enhance security in Cartagena to guarantee inland repeated visits; an ad hoc marketing policy may encourage revisit by young South American customers; destination managers should extend the inland visiting time that is likely to produce local multiplier effects.