The effects of port identity on cruise tourism and gaining an identity for ports

Cruise tourism industry, as a sub-sector of the marine and coastal tourism industry, is a special form of maritime transportation. Cruise product, a combination of onboard facilities and shore excursions, is the final product that results from a difficult relationship between uniqueness versus standardization, and localization versus globalization. A cruise ship is indeed a passenger ship based on an itinerary including port visits. Today's cruise ships are well-equipped in order to host passengers as guests, to meet all their requirements as well as to provide a variety of leisure activities on-board. The state-of-the-art cruise ships, which have to comply with international safety and security standards, are constructed with a high-technology. Moreover, a cruise ship is seen as a destination in itself thanks to having different ship capacities and diverse on-board facilities. The transatlantic voyages, which experienced the brightest era in the 1920s, were basically divided into two in terms of passenger profile: economy class who had aspirations of migration between European and America, and the luxury segment who were travelling for leisure. Since then, cruise ships have evolved in many fields, especially engineering, design and art. The change in passengers' age, income, and itinerary preferences gave rise to new segments and new approaches in the cruise industry. In this context, it can be said that the modern cruise industry combined with two main components that exert impact on passenger preferences: cruise ships and cruise port destinations. While these two components complement each other, there is also a competition between them. Cruise tourism activities have a notable multiplier impact on the local and regional economy. For instance, Port of Barcelona as the leading cruise port in the Mediterranean Region contributed 2.2 M € per day to the GDP of Catalonia related revenues based on cruise companies, passengers, crew expenditures etc. Considering its direct and indirect contributions to the port and hinterland from the incoming passengers, crew members and ship supply, the importance of cruise tourism for the regional economy is significant; however, there are some debates on unbalanced cruise benefit distribution between local communities and cruise operators (and their global partners). Previous studies even highlighted the fact that iteneraries consisting of several cruise port destinations are the driving forces to take a cruise while cruise ships are currently evolving to become a destination. As a result of successful strategies of global companies in order to enable passengers to spend most of their leisure time on board even when they are in a port, it is seen that ship operators' dependence on port locations, an integral part of the cruise industry, has decreased. Even though it is not in accordance with the nature of cruise tourism, this situation may exert its impact on destinations such as Turkey that has some share of the cruise industry owing to its touristic values and strategic location. Therefore, it is seen that port destinations willing to get more share from cruise industry on a local and regional scale need new methods. In this respect, the port identity is seen as an innovative and strategic tool that has the potential to contribute to the nature of cruise tourism. Moreover, this tool is expected to contribute to the port destination that is a crucial factor that motivates passengers to get more share from cruise tourism. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a new method for determining the effects of the port identity on preferability and socio-economy, which would contribute to the extension of the market share of destination countries like Turkey in particular. In this context, Bodrum Cruise Port Location was chosen as a case study for developing the method in question and for pilot application. Port identity concept has been pointed out and emphasized in the relevant literature, as in the current reports of the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the GEKA (the South Aegean Development Agency). It was defined for the first time by objective and measurable criteria and it was mapped by using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) methods. In this study, the port identiy was defined as a component consisting of quantitative (spatial) and qualitative (aspatial, attribute) criteria. The criteria relating the port identity were considered as information that can be integrated using the GIS. In addition, GIS analysis was carried out with quantitative criteria of port identity by taking the basic stages of the proposed method into consideration within the scope of this study. In this context, the port identity distribution/intensity map was created using GIS-based MCE (Multi Criteria Evaluation) method in order to aid in the spatial decision making process in cruise destinations. To achieve the objective of the study, the following methods were employed: survey and interview, observation, desk study methods, stakeholder analysis, GIS methods, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and statistical analysis. The software used in this thesis is GIS softwares (Idrisi and Global Mapper) for the analysis of spatial and non-spatial data. For the calculations of the AHP equations, Microsoft Excel program was used. In addition, SPSS package program was used for statistical analysis of surveys. Within the scope of the thesis, findings were reported in two parts: the development of a new method and the application of the method in the study area in order to show decision makers how the method works. The proposed method is a nine-step-wise method based on the establishment of a local organization (called port identity organization-PIO) responsible for cruise tourism in the region and in particular the port identity, defining the port identity for a selected port location in accordance with the port identity criteria, then GIS-based decision support system generated within the framework of port identity in order to develop cruise tourism in the region while protecting and continuously improving the port identity with a view to developing cruise tourism in the region. The PIO is defined as the institutional structure that will implement the method with the purpose of obtaining more market share in the cruise industry. A stakeholder analysis under the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) was carried out to shape the organizational structure for Bodrum case. In choosing the parties, those sharing the risks and opportunities of cruise tourism at the port level were determined to take part in the organization. Those stakeholders were interviewed to define the port identity according to the quantitative criteria in the first step of the proposed method. A survey study was conducted with a total of 20 participants, one from each selected stakeholder as a representative of the institution. According to the individual evaluation of each criterion by pairwise comparison, local stakeholders determined the first three criteria as: historical-cultural (25.15%), natural (20.48%) and endemic (18.62%) places. As a result of AHP calculations, aggregated group decision of individual judgments met on a common ground with an 82.9 % of consensus for the port identity. In many cases, it is difficult for decision-makers to make their decisions based on different criteria for a particular purpose, thus it can be inferred that the port identity has a unifying effect, allowing stakeholders to make quick and effective decisions. Port identity map created by GIS-based MCE analysis, developed as part of the proposed method for port identification, is a decision support system that helps local decision-making processes in order to get more share from cruise tourism. The most important advantage offered to the decision makers by the CBS-based MCE analysis is that quick and instant scenarios could be produced according to contraints and criteria in order to see which important criterion and reason prevented the expected outcome so that partly cost-efficient alternative scenarios could be produced. Mapping port identity with GIS applications also facilitates the implementation of appropriate action plans by creating visually different scenarios on the map. Thus, the non-conformities that may be encountered in the port identity could be determined by means of different scenarios produced quickly and effectively based on objective data on the map. According to the port identity distribution map for Bodrum Cruise Port Location, it was determined that the maximum width limits including the cruise port reflect the port identity by 93%. However, it was understood that the port and the city did not integrate sufficiently at the selected study area. In this respect, Bodrum Cruise Port reflects 93% of the port identity on the port identity distribution map, which is generated quantitatively, while the hinterland is considered to be a qualitatively inactive port example. Considering the fact that each port has a unique identity, it is envisaged that the developed method is supported by field research, stakeholder interviews and literature, which are applicable to all ports, and it is predicted that different results will be obtained according to the geographical boundaries and characteristics of selected study areas. The method proposed within the scope of this thesis is open to support from further studies and could be developed with different perspectives. This thesis provides a scientific novel method for spatial planners, destination managers, practitioners, decision-makers and researchers to determine the port identity in accordance with objective criteria in order to understand nonconformities and design proper development plans. According to the results of the developed method and its application, it is thought that the study has a potential to bring a new and different point of view for sustainable cruise development strategies in the local or regional level such as cruise destination management, efficient usage of the port hinterland, spatial-based decision making and planning processes in cruise destinations.