Itinerary planning: Modelling cruise lines’ lengths of stay in ports

Abstract Cruise tourism is a fast-growing segment of the tourism industry that generates substantial benefits to port cities. This study explores strategic aspects of cruise lines’ itinerary planning, and models the determinants of their lengths of stay in ports, based on extensive observations of network data collected from emerging Japanese cruise ports. The duration model shows the robust result that a cruise line’s duration of stay in a port is primarily influenced by the gross tonnage of the cruise ship, the number of passengers, the sailing distance from the previous port, the sailing distance to the next port, the nature of international cruise lines, the specific home ports of cruise ships (e.g. Yokohama), and the attractive ports of call (e.g. Kyoto).