Abstract
Although the cruise sector is considered an ‘unreplaceable’ form of tourism, with the cruise industry recording steady growth over the years, there is a lack of research and analysis on cruise ships themselves. Accordingly, this study sought to determine whether service quality differences among ships operating in the Asian market could suggest broader implications for the sustainability of the cruise industry. We chose the SERVQUAL framework for the analysis; we also employed the multiple case study method and topic synthesis to compare the service quality of three ships. Of the ships investigated—the Costa Victoria, Diamond Princess, and Superstar Virgo—the Diamond Princess had the highest service quality. Based on the results, we outlined suggestions for improving the quality of cruise services, including introducing the latest large ships and high-tech facilities, complying with the departure and arrival times of sailing schedules, improving the ratio of crew members per passenger, establishing a cruise personnel training system, and expanding membership program operations.
Highlights
Cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism segments, and it has undergone significant transformation, especially in the last few decades [1,2]
Even though SERV-PERVAL [15] applies SERVQUAL to the cruise industry and emphasizes perceived value, this study focuses on SERVQUAL [30] because it is more commonly used
The cruise SERVQUAL was derived by examining representative SERVQUAL models and the existing literature dealing with cruise service quality
Summary
Cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing tourism segments, and it has undergone significant transformation, especially in the last few decades [1,2]. Cruise lines should create sustainable demand and loyal customers by differentiating the service quality of the onboard experience. Qualitative research into cruise lines has been conducted on limited topics such as brands, crisis management, and corporate sustainability [18,19,20,21]. This study draws a model of cruise SERVQUAL based on the literature and applies it to actual ship cases to compare service quality. This is done to understand the service environment through cruise attributes that affect passenger choice and to provide practical implications for sustainable cruise service quality
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