Visualising the network of cruise destinations in the Baltic Sea – a multidimensional scaling approach

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper takes a cross-table with the call frequencies of more than 80 cruise ships to each of more than 20 cruise ports in the Baltic Sea in 2014 in its cells as its starting point. Correlations and proximities between the different ports are then established. This is visualised using a multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique, and groups of cruise destinations (ports) are developed by using factor analysis, which eases the interpretation of the MDS diagram. While many position studies in marketing and tourism use attitudinal data from surveys as input data for the MDS analyses, this study uses numeric data from secondary data sources as input. The aims and contributions of this study are twofold: firstly, it contributes insights into the relative positions of the cruise destinations in the Baltic Sea. Secondly, in doing so, it demonstrates how MDS, in combination with factor analysis, can be used not only for traditional position analyses but also as analytical options in the context of two separate network analysis traditions, namely the industrial marketing and purchasing tradition and the social network analysis tradition.