Destination satisfaction and cruiser behaviour: The moderating effect of excursion package

Abstract Cruise passengers provide a destination with both monetary and non-monetary benefits. Along with monetary value released by cruisers, port destinations inserted in a cruise itinerary showcase their highlights to tourists, who can decide to return or recommend the destination to others. The paper investigates how destination satisfaction contributes to create value in port destinations, by influencing passengers' behaviour. In particular, expenditures, intention to return and Word-of-Mouth (WoM) attitude are considered in the analysis. Besides, for the first time, the purchase of an excursion package is tested as a moderator of the interaction between destination satisfaction and cruiser's behaviour. The study is conducted by administering and processing structured questionnaires to passengers of Costa Crociere (Carnival Group) experiencing a West Med service. Research hypotheses are tested on 748 destination opinions by performing regression analysis. Empirical outcomes contribute to the academic debate on the impact of cruise tourism on the local community, by introducing and assessing an all-embracing conceptual model. Moreover, the manuscript brings a number of practical implications as it provides to policy makers and destination managers information to develop marketing strategies for keeping loyal tourists and capturing additional potential visitors.

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