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Publications
Alves, R.L.C. and Santos, T.A. (2022), “Cruise ship itinerary design considering port attractiveness for passengers”, Research in Transportation Business & Management, Vol. 43, 100815.
Cruise tourism has been a fast-growing industry and one of the key factors of success in this industry is the ability to create highly seductive itineraries, capable of attracting tourists while maximizing the total profit for the cruise shipping company. Itineraries must be carefully selected, combining a maximization of the total attraction value of the itinerary, given by the destinations and attractions included, with the minimization of the total cost of the itinerary. The objective of this paper is to develop a mixed integer programming optimization model to find optimum cruise ship itineraries. The model presented in this paper calculates cost and revenue of the itinerary separately, using a cost structure based on the cruise ship's size and the duration of the itinerary, and a revenue structure based on the month of the year and the selected ports attractiveness. An application is made to evaluate possible new optimal cruise itineraries along the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco. The results confirm that an increased profit is possible during the Summer season and show clear opportunities for new cruise itineraries in this region, calling ports which are not currently involved in cruising activities, but which present advantages for cruise itinerary design as transit ports or suitable gateways for major attractions.
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